Crowded parks, no bathrooms
City parks are getting very crowded on nice days, but there are few or no bathrooms. La Presse talked to a man living near Parc Lalancette in Hochelaga, who finds people are using his yard to relieve themselves.
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Kate
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EmilyG 16:45 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
I wonder if those temporary urinal things like they had at Osheaga, would be something to try in parks.
MarcG 16:51 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
People were taking their kids to piss in the bushes near my place so “the city” set up a port-o-potty a few days ago. I noticed the same model in another park nearby while walking around so I guess they bought a case and spread them around.
DeWolf 09:01 on 2021-05-17 Permalink
Last year there were a lot of portable toilets everywhere. They seem to have disappeared over the winter. I wonder if they were paid for by the province’s emergency funds, the same ones that paid for the various VAS and corridors sanitaires around town.
Thing is, even many of the permanent washrooms are still closed, and the ones that are open have severely reduced capacity in the same of “social distancing” – which by now is a relic of the early days of the pandemic when masks weren’t required.
And of course this isn’t a new problem. Almost every North American city fails spectacularly when it comes to providing this most basic public service.
All of that said, things should get quieter as summer progresses. Terrasses will open up again and people will spend weekends in chalets. It seems like we’re following the same pattern as last year, when the parks were overburdened in May and June but calmed down as restrictions were lifted.
Em 11:25 on 2021-05-17 Permalink
They could start by opening up the permanent public bathrooms which are already there but still closed, such as the ones in the Old Port.
As a woman who has to be out and about on the job at times, the lack of available bathrooms was a definite problem last year.
Kate 11:44 on 2021-05-17 Permalink
Yup. Stepping behind a tree is not so convenient for us.