San Francisco Looking for Some Relief

You can find great food, spectacular views, posh lodgings and more in San Francisco. But you can’t always find a restroom.

It is this shortage that has left the City by the Bay longing for the pay-potties that spell relief on the streets of Paris.

Supervisor Wendy Nelder sees it as a struggle for civilization.

“Civilization requires that you maintain a certain dignity of man,” said Nelder, who is leading a five-day fact-finding mission to Paris to probe the possibility of leasing 25 of the street toilets at an annual cost of $12,000 each. The trip is being paid for from campaign funds, she said.

Nelder, now in Paris, believes that the toilets would make an important difference in the behavior of street people.

“If you put people in the position of being animals, they have to act like animals. Then something happens to their minds--they become crazies,” she told a San Jose Mercury News reporter covering the trip.

Along a fashionable French avenue, toilet salesman Pierre Cauchie demonstrated how the concrete comfort station works, the Mercury reported.

“It’s ventilated. It’s warmed up. It’s for women as well as men,” he said, dropping a franc into a coin slot. A door slid open and French disco music emanated from within. There was a sink with water.

“It has paper,” Nelder observed, “which is more than I can say for the City Hall toilets.”

After each use, brushes scrub the surfaces, disinfectant is sprayed and the toilet is dry in 45 seconds.

“I want free toilets,” Nelder said. Cauchie assured her that is not a problem, the toilets can be modified.

Asked if “dating” is a potential drawback, Cauchie admitted that “sexual things” can be a problem. But, he noted, the doors open automatically after 15 minutes if someone is inside.