It's Not A Piddling Problem: Dealing With Public Urination

American cities, already awash in crime, drugs, taxes and crumbling infrastructure, are now trying to deal with a sure sign that common decency has gone down the toilet.

The nasty nuisance of people who urinate in public is turning alleys, outside stairways, cul-de-sacs, even private doorways into odorous open lavatories.

"It's gotten to be a horrendous problem. Horrendous. Who would have thought you would have to have a law on public urination?" asks Joan Specter, a Philadelphia councilwoman who would like to see such disgraceful conduct blotted out in her city.

"The scary thing is it's become acceptable behavior," she says. "There's a sense that anything goes. I think people just have to say no."

Add Philadelphia to the list of such cities as Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta and New York which are newly determined to lower the boom on those who lower their zippers in the open.

Proposals in Philadelphia would streamline rules to allow police to cite violators on the spot and judges to sentence offenders to scrub befouled sidewalks.

A companion proposal would build more public toilets, a staple in European cities but in the United States the subject of years of debate and little progress.

Of the 469 stations in the New York subway system, for instance, only 119 have restrooms, and most riders enter them at their peril. As an experiment, the Transit Authority has placed attendants at three busy stations to keep people from relieving themselves against platforms and pillars.

The dearth of public toilets above ground in New York has long been a lament, too, with elaborate Victorian-era models shut down for decades and stores and restaurants limiting restroom use to patrons.

But even places that offer public toilets say offenses are too frequent to be considered piddling.

"The biggest problem is that individuals don't want to take the time to find a legitimate facility. There may have been portable toilets right around the corner from where they were standing," says Sgt. Marlon DeFillo of the New Orleans Police Department, which handles crowd control during Mardi Gras.

The Washington-based American Alliance for Rights and Responsibilities is not alone is wondering what ever happened to decency and respect.

"It's a reasonable thing to ask citizens to practice self-control as part of their responsibility to others," says Robert Tier, the group's general counsel.

What disturbs authorities is that offenders are not just vagrants and derelicts, but often bar-hoppers and revelers who seem to feel no shame when nature calls and no toilet is handy.

"These people are stockbrokers, lawyers, college students, those in the upper scale of income. It was culture shock," Hoboken, N.J., Police Chief Carmen LaBruno says of videotape evidence gathered this spring.

On three successive April weekends, LaBruno staked out the bulk of his 135-member force in the wee hours. Video cameras caught so many people in the act - even one woman crouched beside a parked car as her boyfriend served as lookout - that the City Council was persuaded to enact tighter controls and penalties.

The problem was rarely residents but rather the scores of college students and young professionals pouring into the gentrified river city to enjoy its proliferation of nightclubs.

Hoboken Municipal Court Judge Ross D. London now schedules special court sessions every other Monday just to hear public-urination complaints.

The city sends out lists of violators to newspapers, a feature that seems to cut down on repeat offenders.

Although one miscreant brought London a doctor's excuse in an unsuccessful attempt to wriggle out of trouble, the most common cry of those apprehended is that the line for the bathroom was too long and they couldn't wait.

"My answer is they certainly could help it. People are taught to control themselves at a very early age. It's just that they decided it wasn't worth a little extra inconvenience," London said.

Civic officials believe that to look the other way on such pecadilloes hurts standards of living and offers an open invitation to take more liberties with the law.

"With the proliferation of gun violence and gangs, public urination may not be the highest priority," says Paul Adlemann, police spokesman in St. Paul, Minn. "However, it is offensive and degrades the quality of life in a city." He estimates 30 to 40 arrests for the offense each year.

In New York, quality-of-life concerns prompted the police to extend a Greenwich Village pilot program (code-named N-Force for nuisance crimes) to 14 precincts.

In Seattle, tougher penalties on public urination were adopted last year, making the misdeed punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail. The City Council refused to delay the rules until public toilets were in place because, as Councilwoman Margaret Pageler said, "It's time we set clear standards in this city for sanitation."

Others, too, say it's high time to draw the line.

Cassandra Kenfield lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans and gets disgusted afresh each Mardi Gras.

"I don't know if they never had any manners to begin with or if they just leave them at home," she says. "We definitely want people to come down here and enjoy themselves. Just don't pee on my doorstep."