The Life-Changing Magic of Public Bathrooms
It’s a basic human need — so why don’t we have them available everywhere?
OCT 20, 2023
I’m obsessed with public toilets. And the fact that every single person needs toilets or toilet related things numerous times of every day.
But we just don’t deal with it as a society.
This became a major fascination of mine in 2010 when I wrote a blog called “Reimagine an Urban Paradise” and I’m kind of always thinking about them. I’m super fun at parties, you’re right. I’m available for weddings and other events.
Nothing’s Changed in the Past 14+ Years
That post makes me snort-laugh looking back at this with phrases like “revolutionize the repulsive” and “Public toilets should be sparkling architectural delights” but almost nothing has changed in my mind or in terms of accessibility of bathrooms in the United States in all that time. And nothing had changed for a long time before that either.
We value people in public space unless they’re spending money so we don’t make it appealing to spend time in public until you pay for the privilege (example: to a business to use their bathroom).
Hop in this here time machine with me and giggle with, not at, this super earnest public bathroom advocate:
“We Need Beautiful Public Toilets in Every Neighborhood”
Pittsburgh is constantly called “Most Livable City”, but we should strive to be “Most Marvelous City”.
Revolutionize the Repulsive
I have been thinking about this a lot, for years. I found that an automatic self-cleaning toilet was installed on the South Side of Pittsburgh. At the time (2003), it was one of only 19 in the world and was “a computerized, state-of-the-art, heated, constantly disinfected, graffiti-resistant, remotely monitored, well-lit, landscaped, wheelchair-accessible, ornamental-iron-and-brick-adorned automatic public toilet.”
I’m just a few blocks away from that right now and haven’t seen it, but even if it is there, we need more of them. We need hundreds of lovely public toilets, and we need them now.
Public bathrooms have a stigma that we should crush by making them exceptional.
Public toilets should be sparkling architectural delights
We should create toilets that people want to photograph; bathrooms that are works of art that you long to visit again.
Bathrooms are needed by every single person every single day yet we leave it to the individual to solve that problem on their own.
This is something we need to change and we need to change now.
Cities need to make it a priority to provide pleasant and clean facilities for everyone to access. No one should have to beg a business or sneak in somewhere to use the restroom.
Let’s revolutionize the repulsive to make our cities marvelous.
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What do you think? Are you into public bathrooms?!?! Do you have any favorites that you’ve seen?
