Pee-proof paint in San Francisco: City tests Urine Repleling Paint
According to the SF Gate, public urination has been a problem in San Francisco for years. The city banned urinating outside in 2002, imposing a $50-$500 fine on anyone caught in the act, but this has done little to deter late night revelers.
Now with new technology, a solution to the pee problem may soon be available.
officials have just finished painting nine city walls with a hydrophobic coating that sprays urine back on your shoes and pants. More pee-proof walls are in the works. San Francisco got the idea from the German city of Hamburg, where urine-repellant paint has helped to dissuade beer drinkers who otherwise couldn’t be bothered to find a public restroom.
Whether this strategy will work for San Francisco is unclear. The issue of public urination is steeped in controversy because of the city’s large homeless population, whose bathroom options are obviously limited. As The Atlantic’s City Lab pointed out recently, “People who pee outside often would prefer to pee inside….if we don’t want them to pee on the street, we must provide alternatives.”
I keep seeing this article and nobody who goes to drink in SF is commenting.
Yes, I think people should pee in a bathroom whenever possible, but as a guy who
visits SF from San Jose regularly, I have to say there are no frigging bathrooms anywhere.
Every restaurant will say “no public bathroom”, and there are barely any good alleyways to even attempt to go anyways. Everytime I go there Im just holding my piss and getting irritated at all the shopowners refusing to let me use the facility. So I am forced to pee outside on their wall out of spite.