Religious group sues San Francisco over open-air urinal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Passengers who exited a San Francisco MUNI streetcar walked past an outdoor urinal across from Dolores Park in San Francisco on Jan. 28. A religious organization is suing the city San Francisco to remove the open-air urinal it calls unsanitary and offensive to the senses from a popular park.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman looked at the fencing of an outdoor urinal at a San Francisco MUNI streetcar stop across from Dolores Park in San Francisco on Jan. 28. A religious organization is suing the city of San Francisco to remove the open-air urinal it calls unsanitary and offensive to the senses from a popular park.
SAN FRANCISCO » A religious organization has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco to remove an open-air urinal it calls unsanitary and indecent from a popular park.
The Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco filed a civil complaint last week demanding the city remove the concrete circular urinal from the iconic Dolores Park.
The group says the urinal, which is out in the open and screened only with plants for privacy, “emanates offensive odors,” ”has no hand-washing facilities” and “it’s offensive to manners and morals.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the facility installed in February discriminates against women and the disabled and exposes those who use it to “shame and embarrassment.”
“The open-air urination hole violates the privacy of those who need to use the restroom but would be required to expose their bodies and suffer shame and degradation of urinating in public view,” it says.
The City Attorney’s office said in a statement that it will defend against the litigation and pointed out the 16-acre park is well-known for its “counter culture, immodest sunbathers, pot brownie vendors, spectacular city views, and famously irreverent ‘Hunky Jesus’ contest.”
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The office said residents advocated for the facility, called a “pissoir.” to stop people from urinating on walls, bushes and sidewalks.
“If I had to predict the top 100 things in Dolores Park likely to offend these plaintiffs, I wouldn’t have guessed that this would make the cut,” City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey said in the statement.
The urinal is part of a $20 million renovation plan that now has put more than two dozen toilets in Dolores Park along with other upgrades.
San Francisco has a long, sometimes creative, history of dealing with public urination. Last summer, the city painted nearly 30 walls with a repellant paint that makes urine spray back on the offender. In 2002, the city increased the possible fine for the crime up to $500, but that did little to deter the practice.
14 responses to “Religious group sues San Francisco over open-air urinal”
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go to http://www.sfgate.com for more insight into this challenge…..read the more than 200 reader comments too.
How soon will this open air urinal come to Hawaii?
already here, we call them trees or bushes in hawaii.
So will the Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco pay to build facilities that are acceptable to them or just whine about what is?
Well if the church or whoever don’t want to pay for facilities why doesn’t the city put up a bunch around Waikiki. And you complain about cleaning centers for the homeless, this is worst.
From looking at the photo, it seems like if you use this urinal some of your #1 will splash back onto your shoes and lower pants legs, but I’m sure most of the folks who use it probably don’t care.
which way are you supposed to face?
Whichever way floats your boat. This IS Frisco ain’t it?
Do the women squat or stand?
Neither. They crouch.
That is disgusting. It’s hard to believe that any city would build something like that and try to defend it. It doesn’t appear to even have a drain.
If it lacks a drain, maybe the city sought to save on what the installation of plumbing would have cost. And anyway, relying on solar energy to evaporate waste bodily fluids sounds environmentally friendly to me.
Other countries employ variations of open-air urinals with little complaint. The examples seen in Japan are actually quite clean.
It’s OK, as long as they don’t poo in them.
There are cases of men managing to defecate in urinals. It does help to be pretty drunk at the time though.