Poop clogging San Francisco escalators

[carlgo]

Bums have a lot of political power in SF and they can pretty much do as they please. Citations are meaningless to them and Bart is not exactly a meritocracy.

[Nightarchaon]

Originally Posted by aarond12

Wow. I have been doing it wrong all these years. I could just poop on the floor instead of walking all the way to the bathroom!

BTW: *their

Yes youve been doing it all wrong, just leave it where it drops,

But seriously, who looks at an escalator and thinks " I want to see my poop climb the stairs" ?

although i will say, part of me is curious, did they use the up or down escalator, and what happened when the fecal matter got to the top/bottom ... One for mythbusters perhaps

BTW: *there does the job, i see no need to have two version of the same word spelt differently, stupid english

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Originally Posted by rbrian

Here's a crazy idea... how about putting toilets in the stations?

Ahh but then the argument is that they will be used by nefarious drug dealers/user types and prostitutes , which i think the reason most public restrooms are shut down the world over (nothing to do with the fact they generate no profit, only creating a loss because of the money spent on the cleaning staff/policing needed, and that is money the company CEO or Shareholders could be using, its the american way)

[PinkyMacGodess]

When I was in London (England) I was actually amazed at the state of the tube stops. Not clean by my home standards but also not poop holes that stank and made my eyes water. I was impressed.

Given California's legal construct to pamper the very rich, I wonder what an infusion of money from taxing deadbeats like Carly Fiorina could do towards hiring out of work people to actually clean the stations, and if the party that rules the nut jobs there stopped trying so hard to kill things like public transportation...

[carlgo]

Originally Posted by PinkyMacGodess

... could do towards hiring out of work people to actually clean the stations...

What the residents say is that there are people hired, not cheaply either, to do this, but they simply won't. Evidently management can't make them perform "degrading" jobs and by some accounts they are too busy playing on their iToys and even doing their own inappropriate pooping and peeing.

They have bathrooms, but they were closed down to combat terrorism! Actually, they just didn't want to clean them.

Like I said, not a Meritocracy. And the police are prohibited from doing much because there is a great deal of political support for the notion that "quality of life" laws discriminate against the lifestyle choice of sleeping and pooping on the streets.

[PinkyMacGodess]

Originally Posted by carlgo

What the residents say is that there are people hired, not cheaply either, to do this, but they simply won't. Evidently management can't make them perform "degrading" jobs and by some accounts they are too busy playing on their iToys and even doing their own inappropriate pooping and peeing.

They have bathrooms, but they were closed down to combat terrorism! Actually, they just didn't want to clean them.

Like I said, not a Meritocracy. And the police are prohibited from doing much because there is a great deal of political support for the notion that "quality of life" laws discriminate against the lifestyle choice of sleeping and pooping on the streets.

A large part of the issue can also be placed on the designers of this infrastructure who unknowingly made it so damn hard to clean and maintain. We can put men on the moon, and robots on Mars, and Venus, and yet the escalator is something that is as finicky as Paris Hilton when you run out of Peruvian blow... If things were made to be cleaned in an appropriate way, then things wouldn't be such an issue to maintain. I think the majority of the London escalators were built by the inventor himself, and are probably a lot more reliable and more resilient than the new ones. Planned obsolescence really sucks, and more than just downtime. It sucks tax money too, both directly and indirectly.

But anyway...

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Originally Posted by carlgo

Bums have a lot of political power in SF and they can pretty much do as they please. Citations are meaningless to them and Bart is not exactly a meritocracy.

In deed...

[ericrwalker]

Originally Posted by obeygiant

Poop comes out of buttholes.

There are a lot of those in San Francisco too.

[aarond12]

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

BTW: *there does the job, i see no need to have two version of the same word spelt differently, stupid english

Agreed. English is a terrible language. But then what would grammar Nazis like myself do?

[snberk103]

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

...
Ahh but then the argument is that they will be used by nefarious drug dealers/user types and prostitutes , which i think the reason most public restrooms are shut down the world over (nothing to do with the fact they generate no profit, only creating a loss because of the money spent on the cleaning staff/policing needed, and that is money the company CEO or Shareholders could be using, its the american way)

Vancouver was having a similar issue, in it's downtown eastside. Lots of poor people living rough in the neighbourhood, making a mess because the public washrooms were closed. So Vancouver reopened the public washrooms and staffed them with attendants. Their job was simply to keep the facilities clean, and to watch what was happening. But not to call the cops for a drug deal (though they could call for help if someone was in danger). Turns out drug dealers didn't want witnesses, so they stayed away. The washrooms were safe because there was someone whose job was to watch out for you. And they were spotlessly clean. It also turns out that when the city started taking pride in the washrooms, the street residents did too - and they helped to keep the facilities safe and clean. So safe and clean that tourists are comfortable using the facilities, despite them being in poorest neighbourhood in Canada.

City saved a wack of money too. A large number of people cleaning the streets in the neighbourhood could be moved to other areas and improving the city.

Vancouver is also experimenting with small public one person facilities, that sit on the sidewalk. After each use it seals itself and cleans itself.

Vancouver is also the city that has a place for people to go and inject/or-whatever their drugs legally. It's clean and safe, and they can get clean needles. If they OD there are medical staff who can deal with the issue until the paramedics arrive. Saves a lot of lives, and a lot of money.

[decafjava]

Excellent, makes me proud that my hometown (I'm originally from Vancouver) has such an enlightened policy.

[rbrian]

Originally Posted by snberk103

Vancouver was having a similar issue, in it's downtown eastside. Lots of poor people living rough in the neighbourhood, making a mess because the public washrooms were closed. So Vancouver reopened the public washrooms and staffed them with attendants. Their job was simply to keep the facilities clean, and to watch what was happening. But not to call the cops for a drug deal (though they could call for help if someone was in danger). Turns out drug dealers didn't want witnesses, so they stayed away. The washrooms were safe because there was someone whose job was to watch out for you. And they were spotlessly clean. It also turns out that when the city started taking pride in the washrooms, the street residents did too - and they helped to keep the facilities safe and clean.

What you just said there sounds a lot like empirical evidence. Since when did that have any place in public policy!?

[snberk103]

Originally Posted by rbrian

What you just said there sounds a lot like empirical evidence. Since when did that have any place in public policy!?

That's the problem with being married to a senior public policy analyst... you kinda take these things seriously....

[rbrian]

Originally Posted by snberk103

That's the problem with being married to a senior public policy analyst... you kinda take these things seriously....

I'm glad somebody does!

[marzer]

Hmmmm. As slow as my internet connection has been running lately, I'll be cracking open my Airport Extreme when I get home!

[imahawki]

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

But seriously, who looks at an escalator and thinks " I want to see my poop climb the stairs" ?

Who looks at an escalator and DOESN'T think that? Must of us just resist