The following editorial appeared in the December 4 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
After the test drive, the City of Guelph looks set to park its pissoir period.
We can’t say we’re disappointed – though we wonder where and whether the used plastic urinals will turn up next. How do you market a used pissoir just coming off a lease?
We digress.
The downtown experiment sort of worked. It apparently saw thousands urinate into the receptacles this fall. That must have prevented some on-street, on-sidewalk or on-store-front pee breaks. But the key failing of the initiative was accurately anticipated. The devices weren’t accessible to any but able-bodied male users – and rather uninhibited ones at that.
Proponents of the trial accurately note, however, that the urinals offered further evidence that a part of remedying the downtown, outdoor urination problem is providing access to lavatory facilities at odd hours. Sure a lot of urine in this trial was collected while bars and other businesses were open, but a great deal probably came to the pissoirs’ tanks after restaurant and bar washrooms in the core closed.
Next steps on the issue look to be heading in the direction of establishing permanent, public, accessible loos in the core area. That will help, but will invite other costs and headaches too.
We renew our call to seek the participation of the bars and late-night eateries to be part of the strategy to address this issue. Politically, it should again be floated whether such stakeholders might be obliged to underwrite the construction and maintenance of such facilities and or be mandated to provide after-hours access to their washrooms.
Increased public fouling fines and enhanced enforcement of the bylaw that yields them were welcomed and effective measures in providing further relief for downtown stakeholders victimized by this matter. Perhaps continued vigilance on enforcing these bylaws will continue to curb the troubling behavior and or lead to a revenue source to address it in other ways.
We’ve had it with the pissoirs, however. It’s good to see them flushed from the downtown’s streetscape and culture.