4 ms·
People have been talking about an uptick in human feces found on sidewalks and alleyways in San Francisco recently as though the pandemic is causing more people
by icey 6y ago
People have been talking about an uptick in human feces found on sidewalks and alleyways in San Francisco recently as though the pandemic is causing more people to choose to go on the street or as a signal of increased homelessness. I think what the article is talking about is a much bigger cause.
If you're in SF, try finding a bathroom to use even if you do have money to spend somewhere. Everyone has closed their bathrooms because of COVID protocols -- I have no idea if this something mandated by law, or something that businesses are doing, but it's nearly impossible to find a place to relieve yourself unless you're near a park with a public restroom.
I don't have a lot of confidence that the local government in SF is ready to solve this on their own, but just like homelessness, it's much larger than a one-city problem and hopefully more attention on things like this will help everyone chip away at the issues.
- sbilstein 6y agoedit: I lived in SF & Oakland from 2013-2019 and Manhattan from late 2019 - now. The feces problem in SF is exacerbated by opiates. Heavy opiate use causes extreme constipation and opiate withdrawal causes the opposite. Housing and drugs are the top of funnel problems in SF contributing to everything else. New York City seems to not have anywhere near the level of public feces as SOMA / Downtown SF even throughout the pandemic.
- setpatchaddress 6y agoYes. And just to be clear, this was a problem in SF well before the pandemic.
- icey 6y agoIt's not exactly like for like, but compare these maps of available public restrooms in SF and NYC: - NYC: http://m3.mappler.net/nyrestroom/ http://m3.mappler.net/nyrestroom/ - SF: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/viewer?mid=1xRGER_GLPdRdOAT-RPvj1GWUqcw&ll=37.76364906889251%2C-122.44970315&z=13 https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/viewer?mid=1xRGER_GLPdRdOA... No disagreement as to the opiate issues in SF exacerbating the problem, but it seems reasonable to think that anyone (drug problem or not) would prefer to use a bathroom than squat on a sidewalk.
- sbilstein 6y agoYea I wasn't saying it was the only cause but holy shit I did not know there were that many bathrooms in Manhattan =)