The following article appeared in the September 17 edition of the Ontarion:
Christine Paige had to go just as badly as anyone else. While her partner found a shining beacon of hope on Guelph’s downtown streets, Paige was forced to hold-it. Paige watched from the sidelines in a downtown Guelph parking lot as other male bar-goers also relieved themselves, possibly for the first time, in an outdoor public urinal.
“ I wish I could go right now. If I can’t point it, how am I supposed to shoot it?” questioned Paige. “I wouldn’t walk in there because I feel like I’m not invited. It’s geared towards males.”
The introduction of outdoor public urinals, or the classier term, pissoirs, are the city’s answer to a perceived rampant public urination problem in Guelph’s downtown core. The thinking behind the project is that the pissoirs will discourage people from urinating on public streets.
Jocelyn Maurice, a University of Guelph student, was also feeling the sting of rejection while she waited for her boyfriend to finish his inaugural pee at the MacDonnell St. pissoir.
“I can stand here and watch anyone pee. I can go to Carden St. and watch anyone pee,” said Maurice. “I have to pee right now but where am I going to pee?”
On the other hand, Mark Armstrong, a frequent visitor to Guelph, found the experience refreshing, certainly relieving.
“Peeing outside in the public urinals was excellent because instead of being a shameful experience where you’re trying to hide it, it was okay,” explained Armstrong. “Me and my friend high-fived while we were peeing. It was a good bonding experience,” he joked.
But the issue of the pissoirs in Guelph’s downtown goes beyond the simple question of nerves or whether to pee or not to pee. But the already overused pun that the government is “flushing money down the toilet” with such a project just scratches the surface of the debate. Opinion in the business community varies over the logistics and implementation of the project. And the fact that only able-bodied males have access to the facilities during the pilot project has some questioning its legitimacy.
How it all started to flow
Guelph’s urination problem is evident to anyone who has dared to walk the downtown streets on a morning after the city’s bars have been in full swing. The smell of urine rises from the concrete and is wafted out of alleyways to greet Guelph’s citizens with a quandary.
Since the passing of new anti-fouling laws in 2007 that made urination, spitting, and defecating outdoors punishable offences, the Guelph police have issued 342 tickets for fouling on the street. Out of those tickets, 341 were issued to male foulers.
City councilor Ian Findlay decided to react after receiving complaints from local merchants that they were constantly being forced to clean urine off of their storefronts after popular bar nights. The Night Life Task Force, a body representing downtown businesses, the Downtown Guelph Business Association, Guelph Police Service, and the City of Guelph, debated over the best approach at dealing with the problem. Following a trip to Edmonton, where public urinals were implemented in 2007, Findlay saw that pissoirs there were helping reduce public urination and wanted Guelph to emulate that approach.
After debating the viability of the pissoirs in downtown Guelph, the city decided that these outdoor toilets could be the answer to their public urination woes. While issues of cost and gender-exclusivity were raised when the project took root, the city council elected to move forward with their proposed two-month pilot project and the pissoirs of Guelph were born.
The pissoirs themselves aren’t much to look at and could easily be confused with a very small construction site. High metal fences frame what looks like a plastic spaceship rising from the asphalt, and black cloth has been placed around the area to create some semblance of privacy for those who dare to let it flow.
On Aug. 31, two pissoirs appeared downtown, one on MacDonnell St. in a parking lot beside Sun Sun’s Restaurant, and one on Carden St. across from the old city hall. With that, the pilot project was officially underway, just in time for the arrival of the masses.
Down to the business
For Anthony Veder, the pissoirs were not the golden ticket to clean streets that the city had been hoping for. Veder, a long-time Guelph resident and owner of DLR, a popular Carden St. clothing store, was furious with the direction the program had taken when one of the pissoirs was placed very near the front of his store.
“We’re trying to sell a concept down here, that [the city is] pushing, and they throw a toilet in our face,” said Veder.
Despite being an active member of the community and an avid supporter of the city’s downtown improvement project, Veder said he wasn’t notified about exactly how close the pissoirs would be to his women’s clothing store.
“If they’re going to do a pilot project, why don’t they do something where they can get a consistency going?” Veder asked. “They’re taking a MacDonnell problem and bringing it to a street that has not traditionally had that problem.”
Along with Veder, others also hold the city’s bars responsible for the current public urination problem and suggest that perhaps these establishments should be the ones funding the project entirely, or at least provide improved conditions in their own restroom facilities.
For the two-month pilot project the city is putting up $8,400 with an additional $4,200 from downtown stakeholders to be spent on a public education campaign that includes posters for downtown establishments and signs for the pissoirs.
City Councilor Maggie Laidlaw expected that the downtown bars would be held more financially responsible for a problem she thinks they are helping created. Laidlaw felt that the current level of contribution from the downtown businesses, more specifically the bars, is not enough.
“The bars that stay open until two in the morning and then don’t let people use the washrooms should be paying for them,” said Laidlaw.
Jay Lefler, a downtown bar patron and a longtime Guelph resident, felt that most bars are lacking when it comes to their restroom offerings.
“[The city] has to go back to the owners of the bar and tell them that they need to fix their washrooms and clean them up,” he said. “That’s the root of the problem.”
Stephanie O’Coin, general manager of the Albion Hotel, disagrees with those sentiments and feels that the bars are doing their due diligence already.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for us to fund outdoor urinals when we have public restrooms available to people within the facilities that are getting them drunk,” O’Coin said. “They can use the bathroom before they leave.”
The city is currently making steps to address the concerns expressed by Veder. Findlay has expressed that the city is trying to be proactive about the concerns of local merchants and building owners.
“We are sensitive to [Veder’s] concern about the location of the pissoir,” Findaly said. In fact, we are going to be relocating it to be more discreet as a result of his concern.”
Findlay also said that if the city decides after the two-month project to go ahead and keep using the pissoirs, a strong dialogue over where the pissoirs will be located will have to occur between the city and downtown stakeholders.
Forgetting anyone?
While the City of Guelph maintains that different pissoirs would be put into place if the two month project was deemed as a success, one question seems to be echoing through the streets of downtown Guelph: What about me?
The city’s pissoirs, just by their very construction, cater to able-bodied men while leaving women and those with accessibility issues watching.
O’Coin had concerns about the project simply from the point-of-view as an excluded individual.
“I didn’t realize that women were excluded from using them,” said O’Coin. “If women can manage to walk home then maybe men should be able to as well.”
Andrew Langille, a Guelph resident, echoed O’Coin, disturbed by the exclusivity of the outdoor urinals.
“They discriminate against women and people with disabilities. It was a bad idea and a stop-gap solution to deal with a problem that has been ongoing for like, ten years, twenty years,” said Langille. “What they really need to put in is some permanent solution. Put an actual physical washroom that is accessible to women as well as people with disabilities.”
According to Jennifer Mackie, the executive director of the Downtown Guelph Business Association, while the city is planning on making the pissoirs more accessible to women and those with accessibility issues should the pilot be a success, for now, the pissoirs remain “for the boys.”
“What we know behaviorally is that women are generally better planners at dealing with emptying their bladders and what we know anecdotally is that bars will allow women to step out of line to use the washrooms and then get back in line, whereas they don’t allow men to do this,” explained Mackie. “We took all factors into consideration and we are well aware that they [pissoirs] do not meet all needs.”
Findlay is looking to European public urinals as examples of how to cater to those feeling that their bladders have been snubbed.
“We absolutely acknowledge that this is not ideal for women,” said Findlay. “In Europe they use a very similar unit where they provide disposable paper cones for women.”
According to Findlay, the future might also see an attendant being stationed at the pissoirs to uphold the privacy and safety of users.
Is money being pissed away?
Findlay explained that should the project become a more permanent fixture in the Guelph downtown, it would cost roughly $30, 000 to maintain two units for one year.
In the face of criticism, Findlay feels that already, even two weeks into the project, the pissoirs are proving to be a success.
“The numbers don’t lie. We are keeping track of the amount of urine in the pissoirs. In the first week 556 litres were removed. We conservatively estimated that was 1, 500 people,” explained Findlay. “
The Night Life Task Force will meet following the pilot project to analyze both empirical and anecdotal evidence. According to Mackie, they will decide at that time whether the pissoirs are officially a go.
Despite the introduction of the pissoirs to the downtown streets, Guelph police still have to issue fouling tickets regularly. Police Sgt. Doug Pflug explains that over the weekend, police issued 10 fouling tickets.
“One, ironically enough, was 20 metres away from the pissoir,” said Pflug.
But some simply think the debate is getting out of hand.
“People have been putting way too much energy into this ridiculous conversation,” said
O’Coin. “I’m not really sure what it is but what I can tell you is that the more emphasis we continue to put on it, the more novel an idea it becomes. Its like reverse psychology.”