The following correspondences came in while I was away in Edmonton. My apologies for not posting earlier.
I understand that the outdoor urinals in the downtown area is going to be voted on tonight. As a taxpayer of this city I would strongly urge you to defeat the proposal for outdoor urinals. I would recommend to the council to come up with a better solution. I thought council was trying to improve the downtown to encourage people to come to the downtown for shopping and entertainment. This idea does not even compliment this goal. Twenty five years ago I moved into this town. I was very impressed with the variety of shopping that was available in the downtown. Over the years with the increase in pubs I go less now due to the deterioration that has taken place as a result of increased drinking establishments. It saddens me to see such a beautiful city stoop down to the lowest denominator by providing outdoor urinals to those who cannot take responsibility of their bladder.
Please vote No. SM
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Just a brief last-minute note to say that we are completely and totally against the open-air urinals downtown for many reasons – the main one being that when someone is drunk enough to urinate in public, chances are very good that they won’t bother or even think to look for, or stand in line for, a urinal. Hence, the pee-roblem will still exist. It will just be a more expensive, malodorous pee-roblem…especially if the urinals themselves end up being broken and/or graffitied by the aforementioned inebriated bargoers.
We believe a better use of taxpayer dollars would be to have a greater police presence in the couple of hours after bars close, with stiffer fines for the offenders. Or, instead of employing City workers to move and clean the urinals, why not use these same City workers to just hose down the streets and sidewalks early the next morning and save on the expense of the units which also may end up having to be fixed and/or replaced probably sooner rather than later…
Thanks for “listening”! RR
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My last observation is one that I am sure you will not like and that is the introduction of outdoor urinals in the downtown core. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen a Council, anywhere, be prepared to approve. The fact that we would be the only City in Canada, and perhaps North America, to have such a thing speaks volumes in my view. Please exercise some common sense and do something the people of the fine City would be proud of, and you can rest assured that putting in outdoor urinals are not something the citizens would be proud of. FM
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just like to voice my support of your (Bob Bell) stand regarding the open air urinals downtown your 100% right. lts to bad such a beautiful downtown turns into Dodge City after 11:00 p.m. l would be more in favour of a few portable Johnny’s brought in at night to say the corner of the parking lot by Sun Sun, by the Wilson St. under pass, and even the corner of the square they couldn’t be any worse then the buses parked there 18hrs of the day. Open air urinals on the corner of Wyndham and Macdonell Streets. that’s “bull shit”. The actual problem as you said needs to be addressed first, more Police, heavier fines, and tax the business in that area that are contributing to and profit-ting from the large number of people down there at night. The business owner at the other end of town or the residential rate payer shouldn’t get stiffed with the extra cost of clean up or Policing. PY