The pizza-delivery car braked to a stop in the alley alongside my residential building in the Ballpark neighborhood. A guy stepped out, walked up to a dumpster, unzipped his pants and — for lack of a better phrase — “hosed down” the garbage container.
It’s an all-too-common sight not only in my neighborhood but also throughout downtown, judging from the smell in alleys along the 16th Street Mall and in other areas.
There are laws against public defecation and urination. They are laws that cannot be enforced because 1) they go against human biology and 2) because Denver has failed to address a basic human need: public toilets.
More than a century ago, as immigrants and others flooded downtown areas, cities installed clean, attended “comfort stations” to address that need. As building codes began to require restrooms for employees and customers, and as those old restrooms began to weather and attract a range of inappropriate behaviors ranging from drug use to prostitution, and as suburbanization began to empty out downtowns, the restrooms were closed.
Downtowns once again are places to be for tourists, millennials, empty-nesters like me and suburbanites coming back to experience the culture of city life, not to mention the thousands of homeless who have made central city alleys and sidewalks their homes for decades.
Lack of public toilets often is thought of as an issue only for the homeless. But what about tourists, pregnant women, the one-third of men over age 50 with urinary dysfunction, the throngs exiting baseball games and nightspots, families with children, older people and those with medical issues from colitis to bladder infections? What about small businesses that increasingly are posting “Restrooms for Customers Only” or “No Public Restrooms” signs at their entrances?
It’s not just a matter of public service, quality of life and human dignity; it’s also an issue of groundwater pollution and public sanitation. Each year, Denver police issued around 500 citations for public urination and defecation downtown, 60 percent not involving the homeless. For every violation, untold others are not cited.
Other cities, from San Francisco to New York, Calgary to El Paso, Victoria, B.C., to Philadelphia, are beginning to address the issue. Not Denver. Here, we pretend it’s not a problem, or that it’s somebody else’s problem. The 16th Street Mall downtown may direct you to toilets in Skyline Park. But when a tourist or a resident hustles to use them, what do they find?
Closed. Welcome to Denver.
There are valid concerns. Drug use, vandalism and other inappropriate behaviors often are given as reasons for not acting. Consider though, that those issues always will be with us. Modern toilet design, though not eliminating them, can minimize them.
Portland has designed and patented the aesthetically pleasing “Portland Loo” that has louvered bars at the top and bottom to let in surrounding noise and air, discouraging users from lingering. The loos are built with vandal-resistant, prison-grade steel and require minimal maintenance. For cold-weather winters like Denver’s, heated, self-cleaning toilets can be programmed to discourage prostitution and drug use. Calgary has installed four of them; London has hundreds of them.
Fortunately, the issue is attracting attention from the public sector. The mayor’s office, Denver parks, public works, police, and some members of the City Council are looking at options. Those officials need our encouragement.
Denver has installed dog parks in my neighborhood and others. We are taking care of the dogs. Why can’t we address a basic element of human health and sanitation?
Next time you are downtown hunting for a place to go, think about it.
Dennis Ryerson is a retired journalist who lives in Denver’s Ballpark neighborhood.
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