![]() Those restrooms are accessible only when the facilities are open. Philadelphia officials looked into setting up street toilets back in 2006, but at present public bathrooms are for the most part only available at parks, libraries, and train stations. Cities around the world have tried out many different solutions to the puzzle of giving residents and visitors comfortable, clean places to answer the call of nature while preventing the restrooms from being vandalized or used for criminal activity. The arrests of two black men at a Rittenhouse Starbucks in April after they asked to use the restroom without placing an order focused attention on the privatization of public space and disparities in access to various types of public facilities. ![]() ![]() The problem of restroom access is not unique to parks and playgrounds. We want them to spend the whole day there, and it’s just not feasible if there aren’t bathrooms, or the bathroom facilities aren’t well maintained. “Lack of bathrooms in parks keeps families out, and it keeps the elderly out,” as well as disabled residents and many others, Ott Lovell said. #Clark recreation playground airmount fullBut substantially improving access would probably require an increase in the Parks and Recreation Department’s operating budget, which is unlikely in the near future.Īs the department works to find solutions, many people remain unable to take full advantage of the city’s extensive park system, she said. The department hopes to start renovating a few bathrooms soon as part of its Rebuild initiative, and will review its staffing patterns with an eye toward possibly extending evening and weekend hours at recreation centers and restrooms, Ott Lovell said. Restrooms are among the top topics of complaints and comments to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell said, matched only by comments about dog parks. Fields and planted areas end up being used as toilets, which is unhygienic at the very least. Those issues, some say, make it particularly difficult for certain groups of people, like the elderly, to use parks. Other users of city parks and playgrounds cite the lack of restrooms as a major source of frustration, along with the poor conditions and the limited available hours of the facilities that do exist. I would probably be less likely to go to a park if there’s not a bathroom option nearby.” You’re really at the mercy of local businesses. ![]() “Hopefully, she’ll be older and able, I guess, to leave the park to go to a coffee shop or something. “I think about the future, and how we’ll manage things,” said Dych, a former president of the East Kensington Neighborhood Association. She takes her daughter to city parks frequently and has another baby on the way - travel toilets are clearly not a long-term solution. Yet the prospect of dealing with a lack of park bathrooms in the years to come was definitely not funny to Dych. “Three kids were just sitting on these little miniature potties around a tree, going to the bathroom, which is kind of hilarious,” she recalled with a laugh. Kensington resident Clare Herlihy Dych watched with amusement as her 3-year-old daughter took a seat. Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown has no bathroom, so when a local preschool class met there for a playdate recently, the parents pulled out little travel toilets for the children. ![]()
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