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San Francisco's Public Works Agency Tests Paint That Repels Urine

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-clean dept.

monkeyzoo writes: San Francisco is testing an ultra-water-repellant paint on wallls in areas fraught with public urination problems. The paint is designed to repel the urine and soil the offender's pants. "It's supposed to, when people urinate, bounce back and hit them on the pants and get them wet. Hopefully that will discourage them. We will put a sign to give them a heads up," said Mohammad Nuru, director of the San Francisco public works. A Florida company named Ultra-Tech produces the super-hydrophobic oleophobic nano-coating that was also recently used with success on walls in Hamburg, Germany [video] to discourage public urination. Signs posted there warn, "Do not pee here! We pee back!"

108 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Hurr durr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wont they just pee on the ground in front of the wall then?

    1. Re:Hurr durr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, was thinking the same thing.

      So you're drunk enough to piss on some poor bastards wall. You start pissing and something unexpected happens. Do you:
      a) Stop pissing;
      b) Piss on the sidewalk; or
      c) Get creative, bring Pythagoras into the fray, and see what interesting effects you can achieve with small angular corrections...

        Put more public troughs (yes women do it, just not as much as men) or stalls into problem areas.

      They can be temporary.
      They're made of plastic or stainless components and are easily cleaned.
      They're relatively cheap.
      They work.

    2. Re:Hurr durr by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Nah, people are like dogs in this respect. They need a vertical surface.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:Hurr durr by monkeyzoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      OP Here... The editors' left out the last line of my submission:
      "Time will tell if this works better than the firehose employed in India." https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

        It's a hilarious video of a solution that has been tried in India, where a water truck goes around and blasts street pissers with a firehose.

    4. Re:Hurr durr by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Or find another wall.
      Why not just electrify the walls randomly.
      "Yes I am just kidding"

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    5. Re:Hurr durr by TheCarp · · Score: 2, Funny

      > So you're drunk enough to piss on some poor bastards wall

      See there you go, trying to see the perspective of the person causing the problem and understanding how they might reason it.... you sir, are unfit for public office.

      Seriously though I wonder if the people who come up with these ideas have just no life experience at all, or are they just con artists trying to funnel budget money into their own pockets? (Or a little of both)

      > You start pissing and something unexpected happens.

      For example... lets say you walked down the driveway of a residential house, right past the cars and over to the trash cans....just for example you know.

      Then you hear "hey" from up above, and notice 4 people up on the second floor porch looking down at you pissing on their garbage bins.

      Turns out, I can tell you exactly what one local college student did, he waved and said "hey" and continued pissing.

      Overall though, it tends to happen at night and by that point in the evening most of the actual waste was flushed out of their system 3 trips to the urinal ago back in the bar, so its not like its even going to smell in the morning. I probably get more piss on my house from local animals, even here in the city.

      Its hard to call it a real problem. Plant more trees, problem solved.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    6. Re:Hurr durr by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Mythbusters tried that, unless you piss like an elephant, you don't have to worry about an electrified fence, or even third rail.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    7. Re:Hurr durr by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      I don't know, I have been drunk enough (or wanted to smoke) that I have pissed in my own backyard instead of my perfectly good bathroom inside.

    8. Re:Hurr durr by nytes · · Score: 1

      Then we'll paint the sidewalk so it repels upwards!

      (Although levitating urine puddles could become a bit of a hazard, I imagine.)

      --
      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
    9. Re:Hurr durr by nult · · Score: 1

      Ha! Exactly.. Ill just opt to piss on the street.

    10. Re:Hurr durr by 3dr · · Score: 1

      Why does the city say they need to put up signs? Just let the splashback happen, and let the public urinators take a hit. Big deal.

    11. Re:Hurr durr by Midnight_Falcon · · Score: 1

      Here in San Francisco, almost all the public toilets not inside a building with security are immediately infested with homeless, drug addicts etc using them for whatever. I've never gone into one that wasn't absolutely flooded and disgusting -- in the rare instance they're available. Many homeless just decide to live in them and break off the door/close it etc. In public transit, they have signs that say "Restroom closed due to terrorism concerns." -- Yes, blame terrorism, not the homeless!
      Basically, any area of privacy you leave open to the public ends up going this route in SF (as well as other cities). It has the awful side effect of making it very, very difficult to urinate if you're going around the city without going into a business and perhaps buying something, or finding a building with public restrooms.
      Thus the tech bros and bums join each other in urinating everywhere.

    12. Re:Hurr durr by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      That was the third rail that didn't work. The electric fence definitely did work if you were close enough and/or unlucky.

      Having a full thin conductive sheet would vastly improve the odds over a thin wire as well.

    13. Re:Hurr durr by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      As I said, "plant more trees".... natures urinal.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    14. Re:Hurr durr by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      So....trees. I would go as far as to fully support a constitutional right to be left in peace while pissing on any tree not planted in a container or on private land.

      Problem solved....plant more trees and take advantage of natures original urinal.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    15. Re:Hurr durr by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

      I wonder the very same thing about the signs that are placed just before a speed bump (typically on a street that runs near a school).

      Instead of letting it be an unpleasant surprise that might actually modify reckless drivers' behavior and get them to drive more carefully and slowly, they are presented with a sign saying BUMP in big letters thus telling them that they can drive however they want until they approach such a sign.

  2. Super cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    San Francisco is super cool to the homeless.

  3. If only it could repel shit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...most Slashdot posts and would bounce right back at their authors.

  4. Dangerous inventions for interpersonal relations by m.alessandrini · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  5. sigh by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a technical solution to a social problem. I learned this on Slashdot. The problem isn't urine, it's the fact that filthy people - sorry, MEN - are pissing all over the city. All the paint in the world won't fix that. Installing clean, publically accessible bathrooms would fix the problem permanently. Men who already piss everywhere aren't too worried about a little splashback.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I live in an ally in a major city with no toilets. Its mostly men that come here to pee but also women. I can't blame them though, the distance to the nearest toilet is pretty big in this area.

    2. Re:sigh by x0ra · · Score: 1

      I'd assume that those men have no other choice than walking the street due to the lack of proper social shelters. Women have plenty of space, but men, no, don't care about them. And then, you blame them for something they had no choice on.

    3. Re:sigh by x0ra · · Score: 1

      that doesn't make the measure any less sexist.

    4. Re:sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you're assuming the problem is public urination by the homeless, you're mistaken; it's mostly drunk people.

    5. Re:sigh by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      It's not a technical solution; they'll just throw a handful of leaves on the ground and piss on that.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    6. Re:sigh by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Well, he got you to reply with "Let me know how that works out for you." Seriously, it's like when my mom asks a rhetorical question when something she doesn't like happens and she says something like, "Why does x happen?" and I say, "To make you ask questions."

    7. Re:sigh by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      Publicly accessible bathrooms that will end up full of junkies strung out on heroin who don't want to sleep out in the rain?

      Cities have found out that these public resources tend to get abused, vandalized, or otherwise misused such that the general public doesn't want anything to do with them. Spend the money solving the poverty issues that tend to ruin implementations like that instead, and it turns out that many of the other problems which required those implementations tend to vanish as well.

      You'd be better off just having the police occasionally ticket a few people for public urination and give them sufficient community service hours to clean up the mess it makes.

    8. Re:sigh by interval1066 · · Score: 2

      Men who already piss everywhere aren't too worried about a little splashback.

      Ok, nice generalization.

      You're ignoring some key points; this has been tried in Germany (this is where San Francisco got the idea) and it seems to be completely successful. And as a man who lives in SF neither me, nor anyone I know, has ever peed on a wall in a public place in the city to the best of my knowledge. The behaviour is really relegated to the homeless, whom I have seen doing this. For all the talk about piling on the poor homeless they really don't appear to give two f*cks about other people. There is a huge problem in San Jose, which is at the other end of Silicon Valley where homeless encampments sprout up, and wherever they do they create a huge trash/fire problem. The police come and shut them down, and they sprout up elsewhere. It would be one thing if they set up and were respectful of the environment and other people, but they never are; drugs and crime (rape) are the order of the day in these encampments.

      Lastly, we need to do something. A friend of mine was here last year during the summer and his remark was "Beautiful city, too bad it smells like pee." Could have been the bay, or maybe it was the pee. Either way, it would be nice to not have people peeing like animals all over the place.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    9. Re:sigh by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      I think the problem is filthy WOMEN politicians stealing all the tax money instead of using it to fund public toilets.

      If they don't want people peeing in the street they should give them somewhere else to do it.

    10. Re:sigh by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I like pissing on my own back tire. I figure it keeps the other guys from doing it. I plan on shooing away anyone that I catch peeing on my tire with a rolled up newspaper and calling them a bad dog.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    11. Re:sigh by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

      Here in beautiful downtown Manhattan the majority of men who urinate in the street do not use a wall but instead step into the doorway of an apartment building or storefront and urinate into that. It gives them a comforting false sense of privacy (people walking by see only their back).

      The NY Post went bananas though after photographing one poor homeless guy who was considerate enough to urinate in the gutter instead: http://nypost.com/2015/07/13/vagrant-back-to-peeing-in-the-streets-says-he-is-a-good-guy

      This is part of their campaign against NYC's mayor Bill de Blasio. The NY Post hates him. Or at least Rupert Murdoch does. Apparently they want the mayor to make the homeless folks magically disappear.

    12. Re:sigh by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      Depends on state laws, and if it was just a pellet rifle, there was no real risk of injury.

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
  6. Simples by maroberts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pee at an angle to the wall.

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

    1. Re:Simples by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just like every male human being learns from the age of 3 onwards. You only pee on your new boots once.

    2. Re:Simples by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      they may find themselves spraying other people walking down the street.

      Most people would do it in a relatively isolated area. Most people would also pee on a fairly descending angle. As such, you'd need to violate a physical law or two to pee on someone. Of course, if your peeing towards the street and with an ascending angle, you'll pee on someone. But on that situation you don't even touch the paint...

    3. Re:Simples by Holi · · Score: 1

      That's what I do, keeps the splashing off my shoes.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    4. Re:Simples by Solandri · · Score: 1

      The penchant is to pee into corners, since that provides some privacy and reduces your likelihood of being seen. If you can make the walls bounce a urine stream, those two walls at 90 degrees work like a partial retroreflector. Regardless of what angle you hit the first surface, any urine sprayed at them is directed back towards the source (just not vertically, which wouldn't happen anyway due to gravity), .

    5. Re:Simples by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Pee at an angle to the wall.

      Steve Jobs: "You're holding your wanker wrong".

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  7. Don't warn them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Don't warn them, people who piss all over the place deserve to get the splash back.

  8. Get the J. Geils Band for Promos by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

    Preferably track 9 from Freeze Frame.

    1. Re:Get the J. Geils Band for Promos by KGIII · · Score: 1

      He played in a little town called Livermore Falls, ME. I bounced for his concert at the bar he played at because the owner asked me to and I had done some bouncing way back in my college days. (I am not a big guy but I carry myself well and spent 8 years enlisted in the Marines. People tend to leave me alone or listen when I use my "unhappy daddy voice.")

      Anyhow, everything was fine and dandy. There were no issues except for one drunken idiot that had to be removed. That was done safely and with no interruptions. I seem to recall it was during the holiday season - it might have been New Years Eve. I was up in the area (I did not live in Maine at the time) visiting friends and taking some time off.

      No, I have no real point and this really is not a very good /. story to share but Grampy KGIII doesn't really give a fuck and has karma to burn, plus it seemed like a good story to share anyways. It is doubleplusgood.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  9. Night-time pop-up urinals by Trevelyan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why don't they just install night-time pop up urinals, like other cities have done.
    I know them from London, Paris and Amsterdam, but here's a video for one in Watford

    Fairly straight forward solution, and no more stinky city.

    1. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by jittles · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why don't they just install night-time pop up urinals, like other cities have done. I know them from London, Paris and Amsterdam, but here's a video for one in Watford Fairly straight forward solution, and no more stinky city.

      Have you been to San Francisco? There is a HUGE homeless community there. They used to have public toilets 24/7. Free ones at that. Then the homeless people started living in them. So then they started charging a small fee (I think it was originally around $0.50) to try and keep the homeless people from living inside of them. Eventually, they removed the public toilets because the public was unable to use them anyway. They need to solve the homeless problem until they can solve the public toilet problem.

    2. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by N1AK · · Score: 1

      So yes, you also need "repression", and I think that walls that pee back are a particularly nice form of that :)

      But are they really? If someone needs to take a piss then this only changes where they'll do it; the relocation could actually be worse: cars, windows, doors etc. Also, the number of people caught doesn't tell you anything, except that more people were caught, the number doing it could be decreasing but more effort is being put into catching people.

    3. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

      Yea, the good old days, when it wasn't a logistical endeavor just to find a public bathroom in The City.

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
    4. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      It's really not that difficult, so long as you present yourself well and are willing to not behave like a scumbag.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    5. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I was like, "Rise! Rise! Rise up my master Toilet! Arise!"

      Then I was like, "No! Why for they bury the cold, cold ground? Come back my master toilet! Come back!"

      It was the worlds shortest soap opera for drunken men. The plot was very good. I had a happy and then I had a sad and was left with a mystery. Who was controlling such a device? Had it been gifted by the gods? Why for had this not been allowed to live? What will happen next? Also, is there a button? It was probably the best video I have ever watched on YouTube other than one about dealing with cats that pissed on a guys stuff too often. That made me wonder why the only two good YouTube videos (other than pirated documentaries) are about urination...

      I need a couple of those for the summer months when I tend to have scads of people on my lawn. I usually rent two porta-potties for the summer plus there is the house that was here when I bought the place and people can use the toilet in there. Close friends usually just come inside the house to go to the bathroom though but a lot of the people on my lawn are not really what I would call close friends. In case this is confusing, I tend to have a bit of a gathering most every weekend at my house even though I no longer drink or do drugs. A few weekends out of the year I will buy a half of a cow and a couple of pigs and maybe smoke a turkey or whatnot. I generally have a couple of kegs delivered every weekend or as needed. Those usually end up in the Kegerator or just down near the horseshoe pits and spit on ice.

      I have 'the spot' and it is safe and remote here so I still enjoy the company enough to ensure that 'the spot' remains open even though I have stopped using and drinking. I do smoke some weed now and again. Lots of folks come and tent, those who are close or needs get to use the house that was here originally. When I bought the land I was going to tear the old house down and have the basement filled in but i decided I would keep it, fix it up a little, and just use it for visitors. I call it the guest house but that sounds egotistical so I mostly just refer to it as 'the other house' or 'the white house' because it is, you know, white and my house is colored... Hmmm.... It is colored wood or cedar I guess.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  10. you are all missing the wall ... er, point! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Main improvement is not that wall pisses back; that is just a comical twist. The important part is that the wall doesn't get soaked in smelly urine. Street washing trucks and machines will take care of the pavement.

  11. Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 2


    As I see it the problem is deterrent. People drink too much, cannot hold it in and need to pee. Given their drunken state they no longer care about how it looks or what others may think and they just piss anywhere.

    IF fines were high and CCTV footage or pictures were published to name and shame I'm pretty sure we'll have far less people doing this!

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    1. Re:Solutions? by Zuulie · · Score: 3, Interesting
      In London, the local councils, in their great wisdom, removed practically all public toilets. They were the flabbergasted when they had a problem with people urinating and decided that the solution was to punish people (£50 on-the-spot fine) rather than admitting removing all those public toilets was a huge mistake.

      When you drum up support for surveillance and harder punishments, you seem to completely forget that our tax money should be used for public services, not for new ways to monitor and punish people for 'crimes' that were created by the local councils themselves.

      This deranged urge to hang people out without any due diligence is baffling. Why is the standard process associated with our justice system is always shunned when moral panic ensues?

    2. Re:Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 3, Insightful



      No I do not contradict as those are not the options.

      To name a few;
      1. Piss in the establishment in which you bought the drinks. They have toilets.
      2. Do not drink to the point you cannot control your basic bodily functions.
      3. Behave like an adult and find a solution that is superior to a 4 year old.

      Many excuse themselves with the stupidity of "I was drunk" but the truth is you can still exercise wilful self control. If you are unable to hold your alcohol then you should not be drinking.

      Some may not care whilst they are already plastered true, but when they come to they'll remember for next time and their friends and family will hopefully also help these people come back to the fold of civility.

      Imagine that all the people you know knew everything to the smallest detail about you. Can you still hold your head high and look into their eyes as an equal?

      Otherwise if you wanna piss everywhere and drink without consequences you might as well go live in some gutter. At least then it will drain somewhere in the sewage system...

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    3. Re:Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 2


      Local councils are funded with tax payer money yes. The establishment in which you buy drinks is not funded (entirely) by tax money and by purchasing a drink the use of the facilities, lightning, heating, space AND toilets is factored in.

      In reality what you are asking is that your tax money is used to create/fund toilets (naturally close to areas of drinking where most pissing takes place). Except of course that you have already paid for the use of a toilet when you bought a drink. So really you want to pay for two toilets and basically use one. Why? so when you drink too much you don't need to think about peeing before you go...a basic function that many children have mastered.

      Bars, pubs and restaurants, I'm told, have toilets. Why do we need more? -Let's not forget why most public toilets closed to begin with, besides cost. Drugs, rape, basic disgusting and intentional misuse, that sorta thing.

      In my opinion the government and local councils got this one right.

      Forgive me if I assume that you're an adult; with the ability to gauge how much you've been drinking against the amount of time you can be away from a toilet.

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    4. Re:Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 1


      Some people don't care if they look like a twat and their wife, gf, children, parents, peers etc knows...

      But most people do. If it's financially based only you may find that rich people chuck a £50 note at you and laugh.

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    5. Re:Solutions? by Zuulie · · Score: 2

      We're going further down the rabbit hole on this one, but then again, it's Slashdot commentary after all. I'm not sure why suggesting that a public service that is clearly needed and shouldn't have been removed causes such a strong response, including getting personal. Try taking a family with 3 children into central London for a day as an example, rather than the flamboyant example of a drunk staggering home. If incorrect decisions made by the local councils are rewarded by the ability to use the average citizen as an ATM, then this obviously makes complete sense. Otherwise... no not really.

    6. Re:Solutions? by monkeyzoo · · Score: 2

      This has been a problem since the start of civilization... if you don't provide public facilities, the sewage ends up running in the street. It's not a matter of drunk people. EVERYBODY PISSES! And I've not found many businesses that will let you just come in and use their toilets. Finding a relatively secluded place to pee when you have to seems like the adult solution to me. The other alternative being suffering excruciating kidney pain before finally pissing myself, which would end up in the street anyhow. Cities should provide FREE public toilets. **THAT** is the solution.

    7. Re:Solutions? by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

      The problem is the lack of social responsibility/potty profit seeking in tourist cities and European cities. I was appalled by the lack of public restrooms in Europe when I visited, and its similar in some US tourism cities. Where I live, which is a decent 1m+pop city, every single store has a restroom, and you are allowed to use it, for free. Even secure locations like office towers always have accessible restrooms on the first floor to the public, where they typically have a shop/restaurant floor. A lot of people, when they go into a store to pee, buy something. Staff clean the restrooms as part of their jobs, and you learn which ones are well kept and which ones aren't and go to those stores more often. For example, when I'm driving to the beach, Chick-fil-a is the go-to food stop because their restrooms are always clean.

      When I went to Helsinki and Estonia, only ONE store downtown (Stockmans) had a public restroom and it had a 15 minute wait all day every day. No surprise, this store had a buttload of business too. Everywhere else there's these god-awful porta potties that want to charge you 3$ a use. Its miserable. You either walk around dehydrated all the time or plan your day around bathroom breaks.

    8. Re: Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 1

      I'm glad you agree but on this second point you raise I think it's unrelated and obviously wrong. :D

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    9. Re:Solutions? by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 2


      What makes you think I do not have children?

      Let me tell you that you can always find a McDonalds, Starbucks or some such in central London.

      Public urination is an offence that is committed by adults. I don't recall any children getting hit with a £50 fine.

      You, parent/responsible adult are doing it wrong if you cannot factor in your kids needing to pee on a trip anywhere. -which is beside the point as this was originally about adults getting drunk and urinating in public.

      A strong response because it's disgusting that people piss in the streets because they drink more than they should. That's the reason.

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    10. Re:Solutions? by Agent0013 · · Score: 2

      It's like a lot of people in this thread have never gone pee before after drinking a lot of any liquid. You pee before you leave the establishment, then 30 or 40 minutes later you have to pee again. Now all the places are closed and you sure aren't going to just pee yourself. Or maybe you would choose to do that, but it is still public urination and the pee is still on the street either way.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    11. Re:Solutions? by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      At current exchange rates 50gbp is 78usd. In San Francisco, that's seven cocktails at an average bar, or a $20 cover plus three or four drinks at a place that's slightly on the fancy side.

      How do you go from a fairly trivial fine for a quality-of-life infraction that is both unsanitary and disgusting to hanging? I'm not sure if that's a strawman or a slippery slope, but it's pretty far out there.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    12. Re:Solutions? by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      It's tough. I've lived/visited numerous cities with different approaches, and things seem to gravitate to one of two stable arrangements: Ubiquitous bathrooms or Scarce bathrooms. Middling arrangements put so much use on the available restrooms that the business owners become frustrated and restrict access.

      I'm not sure what the difference is, but for some reason nearly all of California has scarce restrooms. Places like Denver are the opposite.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    13. Re:Solutions? by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      Suppose I decide to not get drunk, or to pee at the bar instead of outside. Thus, I have implemented your solution and it works splendidly, and the public urinal outside goes unused as a seeming waste of public resources.

      See? You both had half of the answer to the problem. So quit talking shit about the other guy's idea.

      No, because the point I am taking objection to is that only drunk people pee outside. If you've ever taken a long stroll through a city, you've no doubt had to pee. This has nothing to do with being drunk. And if there are no public options, people go with what's left. Most men (and women for that matter) I know have peed in public when they weren't drunk.

      As for his first bullet point, after drinking even a moderate amount of beer (or a big cup of coffee for that matter), I can pee at the bar before leaving and have to pee again 20 minutes later. Now what?!

      **My point** is... drunks and/or "people who don't pee before leaving the restaurant" do not comprise all people that need to piss in a city. Nor do the homeless, as others keep mentioning.

    14. Re:Solutions? by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      1. Piss in the establishment in which you bought the drinks. They have toilets.

      Once people leave, people still might need to go at a later point. I lived places where it took up to an hour to get home from the central city area, especially when mass transit was slowed to a crawl.

      2. Do not drink to the point you cannot control your basic bodily functions.

      Even a single beer or coffee can make many people have to go suddenly go an hour later. Being drunk will make you do stupid things that doesn't reflect sane available options. But there are plenty of non-drunk people that could benefit from public restrooms and have to deal with consequences when there are none.

      3. Behave like an adult and find a solution that is superior to a 4 year old.

      This isn't actually a third option, just vague padding.

      Exactly!
      Well said. Thank you. =)

  12. Physics still applies, if you pee at an angle it by Cafe+Alpha · · Score: 1

    won't splash back. I've seen this stuff, it isn't magic. What are they relying on people being too drunk or stupid to know how things bounce?

    It's super expensive paint. So what they get is that the sidewalk smells instead of the wall.

  13. Re:But But This is Anti Homeless! by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2

    Have you ever bought pot? The stuff is expensive. And if you're homeless, munchies are the last thing you need.

  14. Name that paint by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

    Pissoff? Or perhaps it only comes in a pea green shade so it is called Peaoff

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  15. Why not have more public restrooms? by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    This is the real issue in these situations. There really isn't a good place to pee in a lot of places. People often as not rely on restrooms provided by businesses and they only let you go in there if you are a customer. So if you're not... or they're closed because it is late... then where are you going to pee?

    The issue with public restrooms is that that is realestate that is valudable and you have to police and maintain them to keep people from selling drugs for blow jobs in them or rubbing shit into the ceiling.

    The Solution there is to have them be public but make their maintenance the responsibility of locals rather than some city workers that will be under staffed, unmotivated, and unaccountable when they don't do their jobs. Local businesses will want those facilities to look good and be good and so they'll task someone to deal with it.

    Regardless, anyone that thinks they're stopping people from peeing by putting funny paint on the walls is an idiot.

    1. You can still pee on the ground.

    2. Stand back and pee at an angle and you can pee on the wall.

    3. Women are responsible for this far more than you'd realize and they pop a squat and pee.

    So... yeah. You're not stopping anything with your paint. Put in more public bathrooms or get used to the smell of urine.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:Why not have more public restrooms? by dj245 · · Score: 1

      This is the real issue in these situations. There really isn't a good place to pee in a lot of places. People often as not rely on restrooms provided by businesses and they only let you go in there if you are a customer. So if you're not... or they're closed because it is late... then where are you going to pee?

      The issue with public restrooms is that that is realestate that is valudable and you have to police and maintain them to keep people from selling drugs for blow jobs in them or rubbing shit into the ceiling.

      The Solution there is to have them be public but make their maintenance the responsibility of locals rather than some city workers that will be under staffed, unmotivated, and unaccountable when they don't do their jobs. Local businesses will want those facilities to look good and be good and so they'll task someone to deal with it.

      Regardless, anyone that thinks they're stopping people from peeing by putting funny paint on the walls is an idiot.

      1. You can still pee on the ground.

      2. Stand back and pee at an angle and you can pee on the wall.

      3. Women are responsible for this far more than you'd realize and they pop a squat and pee.

      So... yeah. You're not stopping anything with your paint. Put in more public bathrooms or get used to the smell of urine.

      Maintenance doesn't have to be a problem for public bathrooms. Unless it is in a remote area, a 1st-world public bathroom requires water and sewer connections. Make the whole thing out of plastics / stainless / tile and put in sloping floors and a floor drain. Put some retractable rotating water jets in the ceiling, and have them go off at 3AM every day and with an occupancy sensor. I'm thinking like a soot blower (PDF) kind of device, but with water. To reduce complexity you could power the rotation with a small water turbine or just make the nozzles with 360 degree coverage. Most cities have very impressive water pressure in the early AM hours, so a pump shouldn't be required.

      Japanese public bathrooms sometimes don't have toilet paper or paper hand towels. People are in the habit of carrying their own. It is better to have a bathroom and bring your own paper than to have no bathrooms at all.

      A bathroom built like this wouldn't need regular cleaning or restocking. You could put them on the sidewalk in high-traffic areas to avoid having to purchase land. It's a public good, and exactly the sort of thing governments should provide.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    2. Re:Why not have more public restrooms? by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      That's a good point. I hadn't thought of self cleaning bathrooms.

      Assuming you did that, that would work.

      Regardless, the issue with people peeing all over the place is that there isn't any place for them to do it besides the wall. And that's on the city. Every block or so you need to have a little easement for a public restroom with signs that point out where it is... and if you can't be bothered to do that... then have fun with people peeing anywhere.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    3. Re:Why not have more public restrooms? by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      That's what they have in Paris... free, self-contained public toilets that have one toilet and that spray themselves down inside between each use. They have a little sensor that detects when people pass in/out. Very forward thinking! (But a low throughput because of the cleaning cycle between users.)

  16. Using logic on a drunk? Good luck with that. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    "...The paint is designed to repel the urine and soil the offender's pants. "It's supposed to, when people urinate, bounce back and hit them on the pants and get them wet. Hopefully that will discourage them"

    Discourage? You're expecting to fight a drunk with logic? Clearly you've never had to deal with the logic of an alcoholic, which is generally the type of person you're dealing with who has a problem of urinating in public.

    You've got about as much of a chance of "discouraging" drunks with this as you do stopping ISIS by saying "pretty please".

  17. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  18. Whenever I go out to tie one on I always by mark_reh · · Score: 1

    wear an adult diaper. That way, when I get wasted and can't control my bodily functions, I'm OK. Maybe bars should start putting diaper machines in restrooms- the product will probably get a lot more use than the other products that the machines sell.

  19. Re:Rain by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

    Rain usually falls downwards, thus sparing walls (and ceilings for that matter) from impact. LOL
    If it's blowing rain, well your pants are already as wet as the walls to begin with. (You do realize that legs are walls share the same angle of incidence to any falling rain, right?!)
    It's called physics! :-)

  20. what a waste of money by hvulin · · Score: 1

    They should just put on the lights and normal people will not pee on the wall... Abnormal people don't care about wet pants... btw. what if they pee under an angle to the right or left? All that design money going to waste...

  21. Re:But But This is Anti Homeless! by Linkreincarnate · · Score: 2

    You joke but lots of places in the city have coin slots on the bathroom doors. Then people wonder why there is a public urination problem. This type of solution just shows how poor the attitude towards homeless people has gotten.

  22. Re:Rain by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    You do realize that if the wind is blowing directly toward the wall, a person could hold their umbrella directed away from the wall, and not be hit by the direct rain, and it would be bouncing off the wall back at them. It's called geometry.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  23. Re:Physics still applies, if you pee at an angle i by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

    What they also get is every drunk idiot in the area coming to look and pee at that new magic pee repelling wall. Maybe someone will come up with a fun drinking game for it.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  24. City slickers :P by msobkow · · Score: 1

    So city slickers need something to piss on?

    Any farm boy can tell you all you need is the wind at your back and you're good to go. Literally. :P

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  25. Re:The Golden Rule: by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

    I think this is actually called the Kobe rule

  26. Re:The Golden Rule: by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

    Ugh, it might help if you use the correct public figure for a joke.

    I think this is actually called the R. Kelley rule

  27. In Soviet Russia... by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 1

    ...wall pees on you!

  28. Can't we just pee on the wall at an angle? by mpercy · · Score: 1

    Face sideways a little instead of straight at the wall ought to let the reflected pee bounce away from us, right?

  29. First world problems... by mpercy · · Score: 4, Informative

    First world problems caused by other first world problems (like closing or failing to provide public restrooms).

    1. Re:First world problems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ...apparently in the third world they don't piss...

    2. Re:First world problems... by Drethon · · Score: 1

      Yes and no, discouraging unsanitary actions is not just a first world problem. Though the solution seems decidedly first world to me when that doesn't seem necessary...

    3. Re:First world problems... by RyoShin · · Score: 1

      (like closing or failing to provide public restrooms)

      Which usually stems from another first-world problem, homeless people.

  30. do unto others... by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Pisonme-pisonu - isn't that a animal from Doctor Doolittle ?

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  31. Re:Physics still applies, if you pee at an angle i by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

    Amen. Pubs in Sydney had to remove breathalyzers because it turned into a contest to blow the highest number. Considering the laws there, I think that was the wrong response as they could simply cut off every bloke or sheila (yes, Aussie women also try to drink each other under the table) that blew say .1, win win.

  32. Stupid solution by macson_g · · Score: 2

    In the meantime, other cities (Amsterdam, NL for instance), simply put free, public toilets everywhere. I think it works a tad better.

  33. I'm confused.... by tekrat · · Score: 1

    If San Fran is in such dire straits; can someone explain to me how the entire area has the highest property values in the country? You can't even consider moving into that area of the country unless you've got a job that pays $800k or more. The rents are so high, they make New York City look cheap. A small 2-bedroom house is a million bucks.

    But there's an army of homeless pissing everywhere?

      New York was apparently smart enough to move all the undesirables further away, so now the outer edges of queens and the bronx are the hell-holes, while Manhattan and Brooklyn are hipster paradises.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    1. Re:I'm confused.... by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, if you don't have a million bucks to buy that small crappy house, then you are homeless. Makes sense to me that there would be a lot of them in that type of place.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  34. I would want to see it in action. by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    If I saw a sign saying they had a special paint that bounces pee back it would make me want to try it out. I have plenty of curiosity and interest in new technology that hearing about this would have the opposite effect. I bet others out there feel the same way. It would also be interesting to see if there is a way to angle against the wall and have it bounce off further away from you and still not get splash on.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  35. Why warn? by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    Why would they give a warning? IMO there should be no warnings at all, and just let them be surprised.

    By giving warnings, you're indicating where they can and can't pee cause they'll just look for an unpainted wall. If you don't warn, then the gambling effect kicks in and they will be wary of peeing against anything that isn't a toilet or foliage.

  36. F**kU-F**kMe by tepples · · Score: 1

    Pisonme-pisonu - isn't that a animal from Doctor Doolittle ?

    You might have thought about the coinjoined llamas that Nickelodeon's CatDog ripped off. But I instead thought about a mockup of a teledildonic device.

  37. 500 Ohm Potentiometer on Amazon by tepples · · Score: 1

    You can buy pot on Amazon nowadays. This is especially convenient now that there's no RadioShack.

    1. Re:500 Ohm Potentiometer on Amazon by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Yeah, my grandmother has to buy all her stuff on Amazon now that RadioShack is gone.

  38. Re:Physics still applies, if you pee at an angle i by operagost · · Score: 3

    Seems like it would have been easiest to change the breathalyzer to only display "drunk" and "probably not drunk" lights. That takes the fun out of it.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  39. Re:But But This is Anti Homeless! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Piss on the door of the public restroom than.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  40. Doubtful claim by aepervius · · Score: 1

    The paint repellent urine is not that it bounces back like a wile e coyote gag (how would it? You would have to make the urine and wall a near 100% elastic collision and as a liquid against a solid good luck) in fact video make it clear that he is only projecting the test liquid with force and it barely backs a bit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tacicbV4aI). No the things is that the urine is much easier washed up. It is highly hydrophobic, but ti does not change that the water will not have an elastic collision. In other word, it barely spring back. Pee from 1 foot away and you are safe.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  41. Cause and Effect? by ExekielS · · Score: 2

    Few public restrooms, high homelessness, urination as a biological necessity leads to 1 possible outcome: people will piss on things. Coat it with paint, coat it with spikes, the problem still exists, you just fuck the people who already have no options. If you can't address the cause, you can't solve the problem, period. I don't understand why politicians think shitting on those who have no choices available to them is an effective policy.

    --
    ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
  42. Naked Gun by fldsofglry · · Score: 1

    This would be better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  43. Interesting! by Teppy · · Score: 1

    I think I would intentionally pee on a wall (at an angle of course) just to see how well this stuff works.

  44. Re:Rain by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

    San Francisco doesn't really get rain, a few storms a year. They get earthquakes more often than rain. When it rains the whole city freaks out and floods.

    --
    Man, you really need that seminar!
  45. Why not use this for graffiti? by linkchaos · · Score: 1

    Why not use this for graffiti - seems there is a bigger problem in SF w/ Graf writing than w/ people pissing on walls.

  46. Re:But But This is Anti Homeless! by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

    It's cheaper than either cigarettes or alcohol, especially in places where it's available "medicinally", like SF.

    Yes, I've been to those places because THC suppressed epileptic seizures I used to have (but only for several hours while it was in effect- it's an extremely expensive anticonvulsant and insurance doesn't cover it). Legal pot is particularly expensive. On what basis is pot cheaper that liquor or alcohol? Per "dose" (whatever that is for any of those three)? Cigarettes and liquor never tempted me to cut up my ATM card.
    Plus, you can't survive on a 100% Taco Bell diet... just eating the pot would be more nutritious.

  47. Why not just shoot the homeless? by swell · · Score: 1

    "Bars, pubs and restaurants, I'm told, have toilets."

    I'm sorry to see so much hatred toward the homeless. Do you see lots of homeless people in bars ordering $6 drinks? No. College kids, perhaps; and yes they pee in alleys after closing sometimes.

    In the US we have liquor stores where people carry out bottles of far more affordable liquids. They rarely allow use of toilets. Yes, we have lots of homeless who drink, but we have many more who do not drink. Many who don't do drugs. Many who are simply way down on their luck or need medical attention.

    Even sober people have to pee; and those areas where homeless people (men, women and children) end up won't offer a proper facility. Don't be an asshole- homeless people often have no other option.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  48. Re:remove malware by KGIII · · Score: 1

    That is why I go to MyCleanPC.com! Actually, it will not run on my computer I do not think. Maybe it will run in WINE? I probably should try it.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."