Spanish city charges $750 to pee in the ocean

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: Spanish city charges $750 to pee in the ocean | Boing Boing

…

[mr_raccoon]

[knoxblox]

Economist –

An outbreak of hepatitis A linked to the lack of toilets led to the death of 20 and the hospitalisation of hundreds in San Diego in 2017.

I mean, San Diego came up with and successfully executed a plan for public hand-washing stations at trolley stops during the first COVID outbreak, but still no public toilets.

[gracchus]

New York City has just four public toliets open in the evening.

Unless you’re an expert.

Seinfeld - Magnificent facilities

[FloridaManJefe]

what am i missing here? if you walk into the ocean and pee, how does the $ charging authority even know? if that is just an absurd intro to advocating for public toilets (that i definitely agree there should be more of), then well…
i still don’t get it.

[knoxblox]

@FloridaManJefe

how does the $ charging authority even know?

[gracchus]

Here’s an article with more detail. They also don’t know how they’ll enforce it, but they are planning to install more public toilets.

Spanish beach town to fine tourists £645 for urinating in the sea

[theophrastus]

Yeah! Then i decided it must be a squadron of drones equipped with infrared temperature ‘A.I.’ cameras detecting a thermal bloom in the water centered on the crotch-al area. Those would only run about ten times what a couple of discrete porta-potties would cost.

“Civilization”, said the science historian, “can be well correlated to the implementation of public sanitation”

(so what’s the proper collective term for drones? “squadron” doesn’t seem right somehow)

[Antonio_Calvo_Rodrig]

Well , in this case is not peeing in the sea. The poblem is some individuals peeing or worse out of the water… And usually they are drunken british…

[Brainspore]

@gracchus

Here’s an article with more detail. They also don’t know how they’ll enforce it

A law against “physiological evacuation on the beach or in the sea” sounds like they’d probably just slap you with a fine if someone witnessed you peeing or pooping on the beach, or maybe dropping your trunks to set a turd afloat in the ocean. I doubt anyone really expects to catch the folks who urinate while swimming.

[Otherbrother]

@frauenfelder

Universal access to public toilets should be a basic human right.

Hear hear! That concept should be obvious but it’s incredibly disappointing seeing how many people disagree, usually because of the NIMBY concerns about attracting unhoused people to “nice” areas. The people in my city who complain the loudest about human waste on the streets are also the people who don’t want more public toilets in city parks and downtown because “they’ll just attract homeless people and get trashed anyway.”

[Brainspore]

Downtown San Francisco’s human-waste-on-sidewalks problem is legendary but the restrooms in all the major BART stations have been shuttered for over two decades now, supposedly due to post-9/11 security concerns (to which I call bullshit).

[RickMycroft]

@frauenfelder

using the language of preventing gun violence

A bad guy with a full bladder can only be stopped by a good guy with a full bladder?

[RickMycroft]

@Brainspore

catch the folks who urinate while swimming.

Trained dolphins?

Dolphins can recognize each others' whistles — and their pee, new study finds...

[anothernewbbaccount]

Thank you (though that is behind a paywall). Shame on me for thinking a blog post with that as the headline and first paragraph might actually have some link to the story, to explain the near-zero detail that was in the blog post itself.
This blog post couldn’t decide if it was a post about a town in Spain or about (an Economist article, also behind a paywall) about the lack of public toilets in the USA.

[Azure]

@frauenfelder

Starbucks is within its rights to do this, of course. It’s a private company, and its bathrooms are not civic property.

While it’s from the original source material rather than the post, I still object to the obligatory “Of course we can’t challenge or question how gigantic corporations dispose of their property!” qualifiers.

I’d prefer something like

“Of course since Starbuck’s is only viable and profitable because of the environment it’s in, the value created by a city itself, cities are completely within their rights to require Starbucks and other establishments that serve food and drink to the public to allow the public to dispose of the remnants of food and drink, so long as the laws are universal and non-discriminatory.”

Of course I’d also prefer just outright building civil infrastructure where there are publicly built and maintained lavatory facilities.

The odd part is the genuflection to the sanctity of property isn’t even from The Economist, Bastion of Neoliberal Capitalism, it’s from Curbed whose corporate parent is supposedly left-wing and progressive Vox Media.

[ClutchLinkey]

@theophrastus

so what’s the proper collective term for drones?

A swarm?

[MagicFox]

[jerwin]

@Azure

it’s from Curbed whose corporate parent is supposedly left-wing and progressive Vox Media.

Outsourcing Public Bathrooms to Starbucks Maybe Wasn’t the Best Idea

[Darth_Innocuous]

there are lots practical ways to do this
top ten list of possible surveillance techniques they could use to enforce this.

1. precogs

2. underwater rovs

3.face detection with ai’s teaching themselves to recognize pee face.

4. scuba divers

5. beach goers required to wear pre mandated swimwear with built in in pee sensors.

6.trained dolphins that both smell the pee and identify the pee’er by scent

7. 12 hour uretha blocking medication

8. professional water tasters

9. weighing swimmers before and after entering the water

10. hiring canceled celebrities as life guards to make affixed eye contact with any potentially peeing swimmers.