The following article appeared in the September 1 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Next time you’re using the Macdonell Street parking lot, be careful to enter the ticket station and not the little enclosure next to it.
The city on Monday installed two long-awaited and much-maligned pissoir units; one in the parking lot next to Sun Sun’s Restaurant and the other on Carden Street near Wyndham, across from the former City Hall.
The four-man units are bolted into the ground and surrounded by privacy screening. They are marked with signs depicting a male stick figure and the word P-SOIR — with the P highlighted, appropriately enough, in yellow.
A two-month pilot project will gauge how well the units are used.
“I think we’re going to get a lot of use out of them and they will help us solve a real problem,” said Coun. Ian Findlay, a staunch proponent of the pissoirs, on Monday.
City council approved the pilot program in late July, voting to spend up to $8,400 on it. As well, downtown businesses have contributed another $4,200, though most of this was spent on an extensive public education campaign including posters to be posted inside downtown bars.
The program is designed to curb the long-standing problem of public urination in downtown alleys and storefronts. Police have laid about 300 tickets under the city’s anti-fouling bylaw over the past two years, but have been hesitant to crack down on the late-night crowd because of the lack of options for those looking to empty their bladders.
Stepped-up enforcement of the bylaw is part of a three-pronged approach to the problem, including the education component and pissoirs.
Jennifer Mackie, executive director of the Downtown Guelph Business Association, stopped by the parking lot Monday morning to see how installation was coming along.
Mackie said the two pissoir locations were chosen to have minimal impact on downtown businesses, especially during the day. The Carden Street site, for example, is across from the construction zone at the former city hall and adjacent the currently-vacant office building at 2 Wyndham St., “so it was an ideal spot.”
Mackie said it is too soon to say whether the pissoirs could become permanent fixtures.
“We’ll have to see how well they get used,” she said.
But Findlay said ideally there will be public washrooms incorporated into either the proposed Wilson Street parkade or the transit hub facility to be built at the east end of Carden Street. These would be preferable to the pissoirs, the councillor said, because they could also be used by everyone and not just able-bodied males.
“I think in the next budget you’re going to see something, whether it’s these or something better,” Findlay said.
The councillor said public feedback about the pissoirs has either been very positive or very negative.
“There aren’t a lot of people on the fence on this one.”