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Padding the urinal


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#21 Oxford Sutherland

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 10:07 AM

This one has a map on it

Good for tourists



#22 G-Man

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 10:16 AM

Yup!

Also all the bus shelters have ads on it. I mean I am surprised to Coun. Chandler does not spontaneously combust as she walks down Douglas Street.

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#23 Holden West

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 10:21 AM

This is my favourite public toilet. Created by artist Monica Bonvicini and titled "Don't Miss A Sec" it ws [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3258096.stm:d0982]installed in London[/url:d0982] in 2004 and features one-way mirrored glass.






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#24 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 10:22 AM

The high cost does seem crazy, doesn't it? Too bad we can't outsource this... <jk>

Slightly off topic, but I'm flabbergasted by how, as a society, we oscillate between what looks like an inability to enforce common sense rules for behaviour and politesse on the one hand (i.e., don't vandalize public or private property, don't pee all over doorways & streets, etc.), even as on the other hand we overregulate with insane proscriptions of advertising or health directives that so deeply probe into people's personal freedoms as to be offensive to common sense. For example, I just read this short item, [url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PGDSDNYYFBPJZQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/10/14/nlunch14.xml:96a7b]Ban for boy with two snacks[/url:96a7b], which reports that a 10-year old schoolboy in Britain was hauled off to the principal's office for having 2 snacks in his lunchbox. Apparently this goes against the "healthy eating" rules or something...

Ryan's lunch consisted of a sandwich, fruit, fromage frais, cake, mini cheese biscuits and a bottle of water. The cake and the biscuits broke the snack limit. They were discovered when a teacher checked his lunch box.
(...)
Malcolm Goddard, the headmaster, said: "We take healthy eating very seriously and everyone is aware of our new policies."

It would be funny if it were a joke, but it isn't. When I hear some of our councillors try to keep us "safe" from "bad" advertising, I sense some of that same insanity. I expect to be hauled to the principal's office any moment, as I misbehave on principle.

Meanwhile, in Texas a guy has invented a new snack: [url=http://www.eyebeam.org/reblog/archives/2006/10/deepfried_cocacola.html:96a7b]Deep Fried Coca-Cola[/url:96a7b]! Lovely, eh? I suggest we get some ordered up for council...
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#25 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 10:22 AM

Wow, Holden! I second that vote: great toilets!
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#26 Mike K.

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 11:00 AM

I bet those things kill a lot of birds ;)

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#27 aastra

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 12:49 PM

Wouldn't the birds have to be inside the washroom to run into trouble?

Ms. B. Havin, I could talk for hours about that sort of crazy nonsense. Is it a case of misplaced priorities (political correctness gone mad) or have the authorities simply given up on large segments of the population? No point worrying about drug dealers and drug users and prostitutes and pimps and organized crime and all of that, you can't do anything about it. So turn jaywalking into a criminal offense and go after those otherwise law-abiding yuppies instead?

Maybe authority needs an outlet, and since battling the serious issues above has proven to be an exercise in impotence, authority has decided to go after law-abiding folk on much more trivial matters?

#28 Mike K.

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 01:58 PM

Wouldn't the birds have to be inside the washroom to run into trouble?


I was thinking along the lines of birds flying into the reflective glass.

Not that I care either way but I thought I'd point it out 8)

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#29 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 15 October 2006 - 02:12 PM

$180,000/yr to police the toilet?

That's $493 per day.

I'm sure I could find peeps to do it for $12/hr. Not over $20.
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#30 Rorschach

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Posted 25 October 2006 - 07:36 AM

I think it would be cheaper and better to just steam clean Bastion Square once a week. All our raw sewage is going to the ocean anyway. What does it matter if diluted urine ends up in the storm drains? Even bright lighting would take care of the problem for a lot less.

#31 G-Man

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Posted 25 October 2006 - 07:54 AM

I personally would like public toilets downtown so that I could use them. I often find myself needing to go and having to hold out till I run over to the mall or the library. I don't want to go in a doorway. I am talking during the day here by the way.

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#32 Mike K.

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Posted 25 October 2006 - 08:19 AM

Most wouldn't realize this, but the public washrooms in Vancouver's downtown east side -- you know, the ones at the bottom of a staircase near Oppenheimer park and Victory Square (actually, I think they might be in Victory Square!?) -- are perhaps the cleanest public washrooms I've ever seen or used!

My venture into that abyss began with a dare some years ago. I went down there assuming the worst, but instead was met with two individuals (I assume they were the cartakers) who were sitting down there in an office and keeping watch over the place (they were near the entrance, not the actual urinals of toilets). In any case, the place was spotlessly clean and felt quite safe. Because I actually used the washroom, my buddies surmised something had gone wrong because I hadn't surfaced for about a minute (obviously I was dead, they thought) so they came down and I met them staring at the place as though it were a room full of gold.

Just surreal. Anyways, it's quite possible for a public facility to be both clean, accessible and safe. But I realize that it would take some $300 a day (lets say, two shifts with two people?), at least, to pay for watching guard over the facilty and then the costs of maintaining it.

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#33 Walter Moar

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Posted 25 October 2006 - 09:18 AM

^ That reminds me of some public restrooms in Germany, which have attendants who keep them clean. It's expected that you tip the attendants when you're done (same for many washrooms in clubs). However, pay-per-use is the norm, any restrooms that don't have attendants are still pay-per-use (around $0.25).

It's a good combination: someone to keep the restrooms clean, and a way for (typically elderly) people to earn a little money. Of course, I doubt it would ever be accepted here...

#34 G-Man

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Posted 25 October 2006 - 09:44 AM

Same all over latin America. Usually an employment opportunity for someone that otherwise would not have work.

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#35 Walter Moar

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Posted 17 November 2006 - 09:56 AM

Portable urinals debut downtown
Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, November 17, 2006

When the idea popped up, so to speak, it was the butt of jokes.

It was also about butts -- sorta.

Last night the city of Victoria made good on its promise to put portable urinals in two downtown locations. They're aimed at encouraging bar patrons to resist the urge to relieve themselves in someone's doorway.

At 10 p.m. city staff set one urinal up in Bastion Square and a second at Douglas and View Streets, as they will every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the next three months. The urinals will be taken away at 3 a.m.

Staff will watch to see if urinals have an effect on a stinky problem found to originate with bar patrons -- not homeless people, as first thought.

Copying several European cities, the city opted to test the waters, first with the simple portable urinals. Hydraulic pop-up toilets that rise from underneath sidewalks at night and recess during the day were also presented as an option.

Mayor Alan Lowe said he now doubts the city will go forward on the installed pop-up urinals.

The $75,000 cost is one factor, and the city's getting cold feet after learning that Seattle is removing a few oft-vandalized automated public toilets.

But first "we will find out whether or not we can train people to use the urinals."

The city is also asking bar owners to support a public education campaign to encourage patrons to use washrooms, not the street, as a place to urinate.

Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, who has been championing the urinals along with other ideas to improve public hygiene, said bar owners are reluctant to print reminders to use the washroom on coasters and posters, an approach effective in Europe.

Instead, they agreed to posters in washrooms, which Thornton-Joe agreed might be limiting.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006

#36 gumgum

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Posted 17 November 2006 - 10:52 AM

So are these temporary ones just outhouse type rental thingies you see at events, or something else?

#37 Holden West

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Posted 17 November 2006 - 11:53 AM

They were [url=http://img.urinal.net/lowlands/k1.med.jpg:154a7]these[/url:154a7] models.

And they put one right outside the CIBC entrance directly across from the Bay Centre on Douglas! Jeez, why not shine a giant spotlight on it while you're at it? Not exactly the most discreet location.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#38 Amanday

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Posted 17 November 2006 - 10:18 PM

boourns, us ladies get no relief.

#39 Caramia

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Posted 18 November 2006 - 12:21 AM

haha well do drunk people even care? I was reading a reminiscence of a local victoria man recently on another forum we both frequent. He tells of the time he was pissing in an alley behind a large van, upon which he had rested his six pack. The policeman who got out of the van to admonish him for pissing on the back wheel was not amused.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
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#40 Jada

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Posted 18 November 2006 - 07:57 PM

Am I the only one who thinks these are just a little kinky.. or could be??



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