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#41 Rob Randall

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Posted 18 November 2006 - 08:54 PM

That one-way glass bathroom was made by Monica Bonvicini. I saw this piece of Bonvicini's in [url=http://www.deutsche-bank-art.com/art/2005/7/e/2/386.php:227ee]Berlin last year[/url:227ee]. Kinky? I'll let you decide. ;)







Incidentally, the hammocks are quite comfy, believe it or not.

#42 Jada

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Posted 18 November 2006 - 10:56 PM

"Architecture is the ultimate erotic act. Carry it to excess."

#43 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 21 November 2006 - 11:35 AM

With 314 relieved customers, outdoor urinals put to good use
Bar patrons were trickling in at first, but then business picked up, city says
City workers install one of the new portable public urinals at the corner of View and Douglas streets last week. The $1,100 portable units are moved into place each Thursday, Friday and Saturday in two locations from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Photograph by : Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist
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Font: * * * * Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It was the sweet smell of success for the debut of downtown urinals.

Over the weekend, more than 300 people used the portable urinals put up in two locations and targeted at bar patrons who otherwise might urinate in the streets.

Mike Hill, Victoria's downtown development coordinator, said urinal use started out slowly on Thursday, the first night two portable units were placed at Bastion Square and Douglas and View streets.

More people came by on Friday, but on Saturday, a total of 175 people availed themselves of the very public facilities, with one user even taking the time around 11 p.m. to text message a thank-you note to Hill.

In the end, 314 people used the facilities over the three nights.

"So far so good," said Hill, who will report to Victoria city council following the three-month trial.

The $1,100 portable units are moved into place each Thursday, Friday and Saturday location from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Depending on their use, the program could expand and/or include the installation of $75,000 pop-up urinals that hydraulically rise from the sidewalk for use at night but are lowered during the daytime.

Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, who is council's downtown liaison, said the real evidence of success will be diminished complaints from merchants, but she was encouraged by the use of the urinals.

"It possibly means that that many people didn't go in somebody's doorstep."

Thornton-Joe remains firm that behavioural change is key to successfully diminishing complaints about public urination.

"It still goes back to getting people to use facilities before they leave."

Ken Kelly, executive director of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said work is progressing on a "go before you go" educational campaign with pub owners and it could expand to restaurant owners.

Thornton-Joe said the portable toilets could save the city money in powerwashing and other cleanup costs.

The city spends $40,000 cleaning sidewalks which includes debris, bird droppings and "human materials," says Terry Snow, manager of civic services.

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<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#44 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 15 February 2007 - 02:54 PM

Potty pilot craps out


Victoria has abandoned a pilot porta-potty project on Cormorant Street due to safety concerns, says Terry Snow, the city’s manager of civic services.

The city installed a temporary washroom in front of AIDS Vancouver Island, he says, in an attempt to address complaints of human waste being found on public and private property. But now the toilet has been removed after just 10 days in service.

Speaking a day before it was removed, Snow says, “We got to the point where the porta-potty is getting so damaged that for safety reasons we are going to remove it.”

While Snow acknowledges there has been “a minor positive effect in the area,” he says the washroom didn’t eradicate the problem.

“We were still finding people using the street corners even though the washroom was there,” he says.

The city decided to try the washroom project after receiving pleas for help from people living and working in the area, says Snow. While the washrooms in nearby Centennial Square are now open 24 hours a day and have security on duty, he says, it obviously isn’t enough.

The city is exploring other options, says Snow. “We’re always looking at innovative ways to deal with issues that are in the neighbourhood.”

—A.F.

Location hurts hotel


Another hotelier says the city’s failure to deal with downtown issues is hurting business. The general manager of the Best Western Carlton Plaza Hotel on Johnson Street, John Clisby, outlined his concerns—echoing comments made in recent months by management at the Fairmont Empress—in two January letters to mayor Alan Lowe and the city council.

Agents from tour operator Grayline West visited the hotel in December, he says. “The site inspection went well until the group left the hotel. Right in front of our entrance, one of the sales agents was accosted by a street person who tried unsuccessfully to snatch her purse.” After the incident, Grayline cancelled a second site inspection scheduled for the next week.

Then in January Grayline’s director came to the hotel to discuss future business. “She has advised us that their company is gravely concerned about the incident and that the future of our partnership may be in jeopardy,” Clisby writes. “We of course stated that it most assuredly was an isolated incident.”

And yet he writes that it is “becoming increasingly frustrating and maddening to conduct business in downtown Victoria.” Annual occupancy levels are below 60 percent, he says, lagging competitors who are up around 80 percent. “The location is definitely a disadvantage.”

Clisby suggests adding more police “to combat the crime we see here everyday.”

If things don’t improve, he says, the hotel will not survive.

—A.M.

Manager pisses at urinal


Besides his concern about crime on Johnson Street, Best Western Carlton Plaza Hotel general manager John Clisby says he’s worried about the city’s efforts to provide urinals for the late night bar crowd.

One urinal was put at the corner of Broad Street and Johnson, just down from the hotel. “Please Mr. Mayor,” he writes in his second January letter, “I beg of you and council to have it moved to a different location. I understand why they are being used but it does not present a great image for my hotel to have it where it is located.”

He writes, “I can’t see any other hotel manager in Victoria being happy with a portable urinal outside their front door either.”

As it happens the city removed the urinal several weeks ago, says civic services manager Terry Snow. It was moved, as planned, before he’d seen Clisby’s letter, he says. Urinals are being tried in different locations and the location near the hotel just didn’t have the flow to justify it. It is now at Douglas and View, says Snow.

No doubt the washrooms in the Best Western lobby will be open to anyone looking for relief anyway.

—A.M.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#45 m0nkyman

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Posted 15 February 2007 - 04:15 PM

Urinals are being tried in different locations and the location near the hotel just didn’t have the flow to justify it.

Cute.

#46 Holden West

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Posted 15 February 2007 - 05:49 PM

I don't know why they stopped that project mid-stream.
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#47 Mike K.

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Posted 15 February 2007 - 06:33 PM

It's still flowing strong on the weekends.

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#48 aastra

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Posted 16 February 2007 - 03:50 PM

"The site inspection went well until the group left the hotel. Right in front of our entrance, one of the sales agents was accosted by a street person who tried unsuccessfully to snatch her purse.”


Don't people realize that Victoria's thieves, drug addicts, and muggers are a kinder, gentler variety than those they'd encounter in other cities?

Has official PR accomplished nothing in this regard??

#49 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 20 February 2007 - 04:36 PM

Stinky issue 'is in your hands'
City launches campaign against public urination
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Font: * * * * Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bodily functions are once again showing up in Victoria ad campaigns.

First it was Tourism Victoria's pamphlets declaring that "your search for the perfect orgasm is over."

Now, the city of Victoria and the Downtown Victoria Business Association have bright yellow posters telling us not to urinate in public. The ads, which are showing up in downtown bars and on poster cylinders, feature edgy messages such as "Dude ... get a handle that thing!" and "Hands against the wall, sir ... the other hand, too" along with photos of men relieving themselves against walls.

The ads go on to say that "urinating in public leaves a disgusting mess on our streets and could cost you a $200 fine."

It's not the "100 per cent solution to the problem," said Mike Hill, downtown community development coordinator. But he says he'll consider the campaign a success "if it convinces 20 per cent of the people that this isn't the right thing to do any more."

The posters also apprise urinators of the effects of their actions. One features a young woman saying "That alley totally reeks, it's gross," while another shows a man with a mop, presumably cleaning up after party-goers, saying "Hope you had a good time last night."

So far, they are having at least one effect: They're disappearing.

Ken Kelly, executive director of the DVBA, said he's gone looking for them in bars but can't find them -- likely because they've been snatched for souvenirs.

"That's not unexpected," said Hill. "Hopefully they will post them in their college dorm rooms. That would be a good thing."

The ads are part of the city's anti-public urination campaign that also saw portable urinals set up downtown to gauge support for installing permanent urinals -- likely ones that hydraulicly rise from the sidewalk at a cost of $75,000 each.

Hill said city staff will make recommendations to council April after examining data from the three-month urinial trial.

"It is a question of which is the most viable option," he said. "The telescoping urinals or continue with the (portable) ones we have now? Do we need them? Are they serving a role? The answer seems to be 'yes'."

As for enforcement of the fines mentioned in the ads, it's periodic. Victoria assistant police chief Bill Naughton said the department doesn't have enough police officers to "have a full-time urination squad."

mailto:cheiman@tc.canwest.com
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#50 victriviaqueen

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 09:24 PM

I think a few fingers do need to be pointed at businesses who refuse to make washrooms available -- even for customers. One donut shop in particular (not downtown, but near bars) keeps its bathrooms locked with out of service signs on them all the time "because [they] don't have enough staff to keep them clean" -- we've called VIHA but my guess is that they manage to get a heads up and take down the signs when the inspector shows up.
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#51 gumgum

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 10:50 PM

I really sympathize with vendors though. I know the previous owner of the Serious Coffee on Blanshard near SOFMOC and he had repeated problems with intravenous users leaving open needles and sprayed blood on the walls. How do you deal with that grotesque behaviour?
The lack of available washrooms reveal to us a much deeper problem in this city that we're doing a piss-poor job addressing.

#52 victriviaqueen

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 10:58 PM

This is true... and it can be really tough for owners... but if I go in to buy a coffee, I want to be able to have access to somewhere to deposit the coffee...ya know? On the other hand....

a much deeper problem in this city that we're doing a piss-poor job addressing



You're not kidding.... and I don't even know where to begin...
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#53 gumgum

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 11:06 PM

^Don't get me wrong, I agree with your point - one small-bladdered organism to another.

#54 victriviaqueen

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 11:18 PM

one small-bladdered organism to another


Hah! When I was pregnant, I discovered -- to my horror-- that there was NO washroom accessible southbound on the Malahat drive. I drafted a two page letter to the Minister of Transportation... alas I never did send it.
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#55 aastra

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Posted 07 March 2007 - 04:42 PM

From the Victoria News:

Women go too

Feb 28 2007

After having worked a four-month stint on the Friday and Saturday night shift downtown, with my desk near the glazed window of an alcove, I can tell you with absolute certainty that urinating in public is not a male-only pursuit in the downtown core.

Line-ups in night clubs are known for being much worse at the sit-down washroom than the stand-up one. This results in a requisite need to relieve, that although it requires some more choice in locations to achieve privacy for the squat, does not free one set of plumbing’s need for action.

This alcove near my desk acted as a full-time washroom from midnight until after 4 a.m. Usage was so high, that squatters seemed to get priority as a result of the slight privacy gained from the extra two walls.

The only time business seemed to slow was when the alcove became shelter and was occupied with a different activity that required either a needle, sleeping bag or a rock and a lighter. Through the glazed glass, I was not privy to much detail (although way too much for comfort) but I could certainly make out the difference between a squat and a stand.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Most of the people urinating do so because of lack of access to appropriate facilities. For hundreds of years, we have known that public health is linked to public sanitation.

Not only should there be public washrooms accessible and available in the downtown core, but also downtown business should be required to make clean washrooms in a number appropriate to their customer base, available to their patrons, at all hours that they are open.

Morgan Stewart

Victoria



#56 m0nkyman

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Posted 07 March 2007 - 06:10 PM

Asking businesses to provide washrooms is tricky. For food service businesses it is a requirement, and VIHA should damned well have got off their butts to fix it.

Some busineses probably could allow access, but requiring it just doesn't strike me as right.

Our business quite literally can't let people use our washroom without spending about a hundred thousand reconfiguring the building so that getting to the washroom doesn't take people past things that might tempt them.

I would however support a few permanent public bathrooms, including at least one with .50¢ showers, and locker storage.

Are there still public showers available to the boaters in the harbour below Milestones?

#57 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 16 June 2007 - 01:10 PM

If I had a restaurant or bar that stayed open late, I'd put these stickers on the urinals to encourage men to use them before leaving the establishment:

[url=http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/06/heat-sensitive-urinal-stickers-as-bug-spray-marketing-gimmick/:d651e]Heat-sensitive urinal stickers as bug spray marketing gimmick[/url:d651e]

Heat-sensitive urinal stickers as marketing tool -- The marketing minds at Fumakilla, a pesticide manufacturer, have launched a gimmicky bug spray promotional campaign that makes use of heat-sensitive, color-changing stickers placed in urinals at public restrooms around Shinjuku station. Under ordinary, dry conditions, the special urinal stickers show a housefly in the crosshairs of a rifle scope, but as men take aim and relieve themselves on the stickers, the fly transforms into an advertising message.

The stickers are printed with a layer of special, heat-sensitive ink developed by Pilot Ink. When the sticker is exposed to a certain amount of heat, this layer of ink becomes transparent, revealing an advertisement printed underneath. Dai Nippon Printing, who manufactured the stickers for Fumakilla, designed them to withstand the rigors of being placed in a public urinal for extended periods of time. Fumakilla [edit: great name, eh?] says that in addition to serving as a form of advertising, the stickers provide men with a convenient target to aim for when using urinals, which leads to a cleaner restroom environment.

The company has also launched a [url=http://www.w-jet.jp/:d651e]website[/url:d651e] featuring a simple Flash game called “Ippatsu Meichu,” which allows players to test their fly-shooting skills in a virtual lavatory. Make sure not to make a mess, though, or you’ll get a visit from the angry toilet lady.

[Source: [url=http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0706/12/news118.html:d651e]IT Media[/url:d651e]]





When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#58 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 16 June 2007 - 02:10 PM

If I had a restaurant or bar that stayed open late, I'd put these stickers on the urinals to encourage men to use them before leaving the establishment:

[url=http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/06/heat-sensitive-urinal-stickers-as-bug-spray-marketing-gimmick/:98cbd]Heat-sensitive urinal stickers as bug spray marketing gimmick[/url:98cbd]

Heat-sensitive urinal stickers as marketing tool -- The marketing minds at Fumakilla, a pesticide manufacturer, have launched a gimmicky bug spray promotional campaign that makes use of heat-sensitive, color-changing stickers placed in urinals at public restrooms around Shinjuku station. Under ordinary, dry conditions, the special urinal stickers show a housefly in the crosshairs of a rifle scope, but as men take aim and relieve themselves on the stickers, the fly transforms into an advertising message.

The stickers are printed with a layer of special, heat-sensitive ink developed by Pilot Ink. When the sticker is exposed to a certain amount of heat, this layer of ink becomes transparent, revealing an advertisement printed underneath. Dai Nippon Printing, who manufactured the stickers for Fumakilla, designed them to withstand the rigors of being placed in a public urinal for extended periods of time. Fumakilla [edit: great name, eh?] says that in addition to serving as a form of advertising, the stickers provide men with a convenient target to aim for when using urinals, which leads to a cleaner restroom environment.

The company has also launched a [url=http://www.w-jet.jp/:98cbd]website[/url:98cbd] featuring a simple Flash game called “Ippatsu Meichu,” which allows players to test their fly-shooting skills in a virtual lavatory. Make sure not to make a mess, though, or you’ll get a visit from the angry toilet lady.

[Source: [url=http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0706/12/news118.html:98cbd]IT Media[/url:98cbd]]






They had these at the Shark Club for a while. They said something like Man who pee on electric fence recieve shocking news
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#59 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 12 July 2007 - 05:51 PM

Pop-up urinals are here to stay
Kim Westad, Victoria Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, July 12, 2007
Pop-up urinals will soon be a permanent feature in downtown Victoria.

The sleek steel European-built cylinders that rise hydraulically from the sidewalk at night but are lowered during the day will be in place by early next year, Victoria council decided yesterday.

In the meantime, two portable loos that were part of a pilot project to reduce public urinating will be available. The project was deemed a success - the Bastion Square portable averaged 112 litres of urine a weekend that would otherwise have been on the street.


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Sequence shows urinal rising from sidewalk.
Courtesy of Urilift

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Font: ****The pop-ups are a way to give back-alley urinators an option other than the wall of a business, says the city. Because the vast majority of the outdoor relievers are men between the ages of 20 and 30 who don't like the stray far off their path, the pop-ups provide only urinals.

Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe has had interest in the project from across the country. She even got an e-mail saying that women too could use urinals by taking a course on how to urinate standing up.

"Whoever thought public urination would put us on the map?" she said.

But providing an alternative for renegade back-alley urinators who were smelling up the City of Gardens' streets isn't cheap. The two permanent urinals will cost more than $300,000 to install and run, so the city will try to recoup some of that money from bar owners.

"Labatt's in, Labatt's out," Coun. Helen Hughes said. "The association of cabarets needs to be part of this. Those are the people who should be intimately involved in the education, and the payment for these very expensive services."

Coun. Dean Fortin said bars are being given a "free ride" as the taxpayer picks up the costs for the urinals, as well as another $202,000 to improve and supervise the Centennial Square washrooms. "They're the ones liquoring everyone up."

Liam Lux, the general manager of The Lucky Bar and on the executive committee of the Victoria Bar and Cabaret Association, said he'll gladly meet with Mayor Alan Lowe or any other councillors to try and find a way to deal with the problem or other downtown issues. But he takes umbrage that it's all bar patrons causing the troubles. A survey showed that less than half the late-night public urinators were bar patrons, said Lux, who calls the problem part of a bigger multi-faceted social issue facing the city. And he said bars pay a premium in city and provincial taxes, so they're already paying their share.

Lux suggests stricter enforcement - public urination can net a $200 ticket - and also changing bylaws to allow bars an hour to get patrons out after last call, rather than the half-hour currently allowed.

"I've had people knocking on the door at 2:31 a.m., asking to use the bathroom, and I have to tell them they can't, or face a charge or fine for being open too late."

That extra half-hour would mean patrons aren't being hurried out the door, and could be encouraged to use the facilities.

And while you can easily train cats, apparently it's not so easy with humans. A key part of the city and cabaret association strategy is a public campaign encouraging people to use the indoor facilities before they leave.

It includes posters, coasters and advertisments.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#60 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 12 July 2007 - 07:09 PM

Lux suggests stricter enforcement - public urination can net a $200 ticket - and also changing bylaws to allow bars an hour to get patrons out after last call, rather than the half-hour currently allowed.

"I've had people knocking on the door at 2:31 a.m., asking to use the bathroom, and I have to tell them they can't, or face a charge or fine for being open too late."


Makes sense, IMO.
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

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