National Post - Canada’s battle against public urination has a monument, and it stands in Victoria, B.C. Prominently located just across the street from one of the city’s premier theatre venues stands the first of many artisanal urinals designed to rid Victoria’s alleys and alcoves of the unwanted stench of urine. The $60,000 facility isn’t so much a bathroom appliance as a piece of public art. An automatic-flush stainless steel receptacle surrounded by a swirl of light-green tubes, it’s “an attraction in itself,” says Bruce Carter, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. Designers proudly note that it is the first municipally sanctioned open-air urinal in North America....Europeans have never shared the North American squeamishness for open-air urinals. For decades, French, Spanish and German cities have been peppered with pissoirs; rudimentary urinals mounted behind modest screens. “They were super-functional, but sometimes they were quite beautiful,” says Mr. Soules.
This just goes to prove that governments, no matter where they're located or how progressive, can't help but over pay for things. $60K for essentially a privacy shield and a block of concrete to piss on in public! What the hell were these guys thinking. They could have literally put up a three sided card board wall and it would have been fine, that's more than we get in your average indoor urinal anyway.
Plus it was just poorly thought out, the government officials of Canada are clearly missing the spirit of public urination. It's about having to go and just going. As soon as you designate an area for me to piss in you've ruined it for me. It would be like the beach cordoning off a section of the water where everyone could go to take a quick piss. No thanks, guys, I'll pee where I want to.
