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Guelph considering open-air urinals

GUELPH, Ont. - Men ambling home late from the bars in Guelph may
no longer be forced to duck behind a bush when they've really gotta go.

The emergency services, community services and operations commit-
tee will consider Monday evening a staff proposal to introduce an “open-
air urinal” this summer in the vicinity of Macdonell and Wyndham streets
“to evaluate its effectiveness and to assess public acceptance of this type of pub-
lic facility.”
This will include
an educational poster campaign,
increased enforcement of the city’s anti-fouling bylaw
— including $240 fines — and,
hopefully, the urinals “to see
if people would be open to using them."

City staff estimate the pilot will cost $700 to $1,200 per week.

A city famous for its street urinals is Paris, France. Until the 1990s,
street urinals were a common sight in the city, and in the 1930s more than 1200 were in service.
Parisians referred to them as vespasiennes, the name being derived from that of the Roman Emperor
Vespasian, who, according to an anecdote, imposed a tax on urine. Beginning in the 1990s, the vespasiennes
(renowned for their smell and lack of hygiene) were gradually replaced by Sanisettes. Today only one vespasienne
remains in the city (on the boulevard Arago), and it is still regularly used. They still exist in other French cities,
and in other countries. Central Amsterdam has a number of strategically-placed street pissoirs.