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Citizen complaint of the day: Ad-hoc public toilets
By adamg on Tue, 05/14/2013 - 8:33am
A nose-holding citizen reports from Roslindale:
Porter potty needed for field- athletes have no facilities and are using the tunnel that connects Fallon field to Belgrade ave to relieve themselves. It smells like urine and is unnerving for walkers.
And in the South End, a disgusted citizen posts a photo of a hole in the ground:
Homeless people have dug this foot-deep hole in Chester square park and use it as a restroom. It is roughly across the street from 553 mass ave, next to a small tree.
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Comments
There used to be a field
There used to be a field house at Fallon, with a head I believe. They burnt it down. So then it was use either the tunnel , or behind the trees on the trackside. Guess they fixed the trackside fence.Does the Park league still play there? , maybe they can jack them up to supply a few johnny on the spots. Or now that Roslindale is a village, maybe the village merchants can chip in for a few.
It's disgusting
and yes, the Park League does still play at Fallon, as well as a number of other baseball and soccer leagues. I used to walk my kids through that tunnel but have stopped because of the creepiness and the stench. Neighborhood Watch group tried for some time to get the MBTA (commuter rail tracks run above tunnel) to put in new lights but the T and the City were fighting over whose responsibility it was. I really wish they would put in and maintain portapotties. I don't want to encounter guys peeing (and some pooping) in there. Tunnel is also a popular place to drink alcohol and smoke joints.
Whatever happened to just
Whatever happened to just going behind a tree, an alleyway, against a building, etc.? Oh yeah, do that now, someone will scream 'pervert!', and you'll have to register as a sex offender the rest of your life.
I've come to the conclusion people in Boston and the Greater Boston area don't have to pee like normal people. They drink gallons of coffee and big gulps, but they don't have to pee afterwards. This explains why there's zero bathrooms and porta potties.
You whip out your member to
You whip out your member to piss in front of my family in a public park, I'd like to beat the crap out of you. When you're in public, you need to follow social norms, in this case: common decency. If you want to down a gallon of Dunkin iced coffee then as a grown man you should be aware that you'll have to piss it out eventually so arrange to be near a bathroom. Grow up.
no one said ANYTHING about 'whipping' it out
in front of your family, or in front of kids, women, or any body. Find a secluded spot. Commonsense.
THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH RESTROOMS ANYWHERE IN GREATER BOSTON. Just where the F are people supposed to pee after drinking a coffee, soda, gigantic Starbucks or D.D. drink? Even the MBTA has almost no restrooms. Plenty of places to buy coffee and drinks, no place to legally pee.
I'm glad the T doesn't have public rest rooms
"Even the MBTA has almost no restrooms"
And if they did, are you gonna use them? Yikes! Imagine what would go on in there.
Actually, the T does have a
Actually, the T does have a number of rest rooms open to the public. They are in pretty bad shape, but they are out there.
Traveled or lived in other cities in the world much?
These 'problems' [homeless, drug addicts shooting up, pervs, etc.] exist EVERYWHERE. But it's funny, many other cities, especially outside the U.S., deal with them and are able to provide reasonably decent restroom facilities in subway/metro stations,and elsewhere. They are civilized enough to recognize people still need a place to go pee.
Not The Best Solution
Actually my favorite, in an ironic way, part of Paris is mostly gone. The public, and I do mean PUBLIC in that you're really quite exposed, urinal. They really only work for men thus their phase out.
http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2011/02/public_u...
Amsterdam certainly isn't
Amsterdam certainly isn't phasing them out. They've been installing new plastic ones.
http://shaunmcinnis.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/the-p...
What's the problem anon? Are
What's the problem anon? Are you afraid to teach your children the basics of human anatomy? As long as no one is pleasuring themselves in public what's the issue? Everyone has the same parts.
Why differentiate?
If you think it's no big deal for a man to expose his penis and pee in public because it's just "basic anatomy", then I assume you believe the same should be true for a woman dropping her pants to urinate - or for members of either gender to defecate in public?
For that matter, why do you make a distinction between that and someone "pleasuring themselves"? Isn't that a basic human function as well?
The fact is, it's not a matter of what parts are visible so much as the activity being performed. For reasons of both hygiene and public order, there are things our culture considers taboo in public. Evacuation and explicit sexual activity are two big ones.
***
Also, imo, the city should be trying to find ways to make more restrooms available at public facilities, and I think whoever is responsible for replacing streelights or blacktop on bridges over MBTA tracks should be responsible for doing the same for tunnels under them. My guess is that this is the city, whereas the repair and maintenance of the underlying structures are the responsibility of the MBTA. It's hard to imagine that this wasn't set out on paper somewhere when the railline was first built.
Then add more public
Then add more public restrooms, or quit complaining about it. If you got to go, you got to go. No other way around it.
The reason you're not allowed to piss in public is a sanitation and health issue, and should not be considered a sex crime, which it can be now. It is almost impossible to find a public toilet in this city if you don't know exactly where to go. I don't make a habit out of it, but if I have to go that bad, well....
Girls can too, who cares.
And while pleasuring oneself is a basic human function, it is not a necessity, and one that can wait until you are in a private setting. There is a huge difference. Nice try though.
See a doctor
Sure, I'm all for more public restrooms. But if you often find yourself suddenly and without warning needing to urinate or die, then you have a medical issue. Get help.
If, on the other hand, you, an adult city-dweller, would just rather not stop whatever it is you are doing to go find a bathroom before your bladder is full to bursting, or you choose not to go before you leave the house (or restaraunt or Dunkies)... then you are simply a selfish, over-entitled jerk. Nice try though.
Okay
What the doctor will tell you:
You're pregnant
You suffered damage during childbirth
You have a large prostate
You have an irritable bladder.
Etc.
AND there isn't much to be done short of serious surgery (or giving birth), or that your insurance won't pay for it, or that medications that your insurance will charge you a lot of money for if they pay for them at all don't always work and there are side effects, etc.
haha Jeff, who said it was
haha Jeff, who said it was often? All I'm saying is that when you have to go, you have to go. I'm not looking to run into several restaurants or other establishments looking for a public restroom, told they don't have one, and then repeating. All I am saying is that if on the rare occasion I'm in dire need, I'm not hesitating to go anywhere in this city within reason. If that makes you uncomfortable, and me a "selfish, over-entitled jerk" then so be it.
Apparently you never got to Fenway back when they had the troughs.
There's a Dunkies on every
There's a Dunkies on every corner. You do the math!
Friends of Fallon Field
Absolutely, a port-o-let in Fallon Field would be great; also to have handy for the playground and basketball courts. Biggest issue with parents and kids is you get to the park and THEN they have to go but there is nowhere to go. Millenium park has a couple of decent port-o-lets at least during soccer season and there is one in the Arboretum that has saved me on many a long run.
Go to the Mayor's Coffee Hour on Monday, June 3, at 9:30-10:30am at Fallon Field and bring up this issue along with the issue of putting some kind of lighting in that tunnel. The Longfellow Neighborhood Association has been interested in forming a Friends of Fallon Field for a while and if you are interested, please check out http://longfellowarea.com/initiatives/fallon-field/
I set up an app there last year to collect ideas/suggestions/etc but didn't publicize it well; I think if more people want to help, we could really build some momentum to improve the whole park.
How long do you think lights
How long do you think lights inside a tunnel will last? Unless you have bulletproof covers, I'm thinking about a week.
If they have copper wire and
If they have copper wire and enough metal housing for scrap $$$ even less than that.
then they should have bulletproof covers...
I think we can solve the problem of lighting a tunnel. There are vandal-resistent lighting products. Maybe the determined scumbag will eventually succeed, but the tunnel under the commuter rail station remains lit--granted, that is a high traffic area--but I think it is worth a shot to put some kind of lighting into the tunnel (and the ones at Bellevue station and Ainsworth off Tyndale).
Gotta love
I love how in the South End portion of this story, the people are HOMELESS but that still incurs the wrath of the Lululemoned South End masses.
Does anyone see the difference here? The people in the Roslindale portion are rightfully upset because these guys (who presumably live indoors in houses with more than one bathroom) have other choices.
In the South End portion, it demonstrates that the homeless have nowhere else to go - literally. Yet the South End snobs find this appalling, in line with all the other South Enders complaining about the homeless through the years. Y'know what? If you don't like homeless people, then take the $2.4M you're condo is worth and move back to Wellesley.
There are multiple shelters,
There are multiple shelters, social welfare, and medical facilities within blocks. Plenty of places for the homeless to relieve themselves in a sanitary and civilized manner.
Open to the public?
Shelters close during the day. Medical facilities do not provide public restrooms.
At night?
I would guess that hole exists for after-hours, when things are closed or the homeless are likely to be chased out for trespassing.
We don't have public restrooms because we don't want to deal with the problems associated with them, then we don't want to deal with the problems associated with public restrooms. It's pretty ridiculous.
Welcome to Boston
We don't do bodily functions.
We don't talk about bodily functions.
We don't have bodily functions.
Right?
So shut up and hold it or go home already. What, you think humans are animals or something???
peeing in public
im in a power scooter live in somerville nr sull. sq im in the back bay alot its human nature sometimes i suck it up i pee myself in my jogging pants then at home clean w soap and water but if im clean clean clothes in public see a corner or empty doorway at night even in the day fuck it i let it go
i pee in the elevator in the T station those t bathrooms
are creepy i was robbed once i try not to do it during the day if i have to people dont have to look (against a tree)
i dont care what anybody thinks are they gonna arrest
somebody in a wheelchair? fuck it
I've never had to pee in any
I've never had to pee in any of those places (especially not in my pants).
Peeing in elevators is creepy.
If you can't plan your bathroom visits, you should get some Depends.
If ladies can manage to not
If ladies can manage to not do that so can you!
That's revolting.
Just because you use a scooter doesn't mean you can pee wherever you want. Plan ahead, get some adult diapers.
I guess I'd care more if
I guess I'd care more if people also picked up after their dogs.
That reminds me...
I once was at the Fairmount train station waiting for someone- and saw a guy walking down toward the station with this little white dog- suddenly the guy stops waking unzips his pants and pees (halfway to the station) he then re-zips and continues walking- into the station (he greeted me and everything) and up the stairs to the bridge- it was like he walked that way deliberately so he could pee- and didn't care if I saw it. I would expect the dog to pee like that- but not the owner!