Midtown Woodward is a cesspool

**skyl4rk** · March-29-13, 07:55 PM

Human waste is a resource. Pee in the gardens.

**RickBeall** · March-29-13, 08:19 PM

You guys are being a little tough on DaveWindsor.

Making Midtown habitable should include someplace for the poor people to relieve themselves. Those European solutions look pretty interesting. Areas with little privacy or plumbing that can be hosed off. But you have to provide something for women too.

It is a problem.

Come on, hive mind, come up with a solution.

**noise** · March-29-13, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by davewindsor

WTF? Are you high or something?

Your original post is so crazy, I thought I was high when I first read it.

**RickBeall** · March-29-13, 08:37 PM

One Hive Mind solution might be that there is no need for bathrooms for the poor. You just have to give your reasons.

**softailrider** · March-29-13, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by bailey

I used to go to Amsterdam a lot and it was usually in the summer months. Talk about a city that can smell like pee...

That would be an open air urinal. Just pee at the wall, the floors are slopped so the pee drains into the canal. gross.

Christ allmighty, I've never seen anything like that before.

**Neilr** · March-29-13, 09:42 PM

Name: Where to Go.jpg
Views: 1219
Size: 28.1 KB

This handy guide to public bathrooms in Manhattan was published in 1991, long before the proliferation of Starbucks, MacDonalds, etc.

Here's a typical page. Bathroom locations and their conditions are well-described.

Name: Where to Go #2.jpg
Views: 1088
Size: 92.5 KB

Name: Where to Go #2.jpg
Views: 1088
Size: 92.5 KB

**Jimaz** · March-29-13, 09:47 PM

How funny. Anecdotes! Illustrations!

**old guy** · March-29-13, 10:17 PM

Or possibly 1891. I'm hoping you just pressed the wrong key. Interesting though. Nice piece of history.

**old guy** · March-29-13, 10:20 PM

But $4.50 would be pretty expensive in the 1800's. I'm confused.

**Neilr** · March-29-13, 10:41 PM

1991 it is. The illustrations are all old-timey though.

**old guy** · March-29-13, 10:45 PM

Thanks. That is an interesting read.

**RickBeall** · March-29-13, 10:48 PM

In the 1991 one book, those are all religious institutions, ... for writing a letter to the Pope, as a friend of mine used to say.

**Chinman** · March-30-13, 01:04 AM

you all seem to forget that in the U.S., we don't care about the poor and indigent. european countrys care and have health care, mental care and the like. they don't have as many of these poor souls living on the streets trying to survive. if you don't like pee on the street...give a moment to change our culture.

**Chinman** · March-30-13, 01:12 AM

simple story. when i had the great opportunity to go to Moscow for 9 days in December 2003, i was amazed that each morning, the owners of any business had to sweep the snow in front of the business so that people could walk on the sidewalk. this was not a suggestion, it was a requirement. made for a better way for ALL the people to get around. how nice when a government regulation works.

**menckensghost** · March-30-13, 01:20 AM

This no restroom thing isn't confined to the city. I ride the bus daily from the city to the suburbs. I have a mile and a half walk from the bus stop to my home in Clinton Township and there isn't one public restroom in that distance. Sometimes you just have to find a secluded dumpster. Walking a mile when you really gotta go is not an option. I think it is pretty rare to find a gas station or convenience store with a public facility until you get pretty far into the sticks.

**menckensghost** · March-30-13, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by Neilr

This handy guide to public bathrooms in Manhattan was published in 1991, long before the proliferation of Starbucks, MacDonalds, etc.

1991 was long before the proliferation of McDonalds? Really?

**mauser** · March-30-13, 02:42 AM

Originally Posted by southen

wear a diaper next time.

dont you just feel the love ?

**davewindsor** · March-30-13, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by noise

Your original post is so crazy, I thought I was high when I first read it.

It's so crazy because ... you normally relieve yourself on the storefront?

**davewindsor** · March-30-13, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by detroit12

lmao wow is all I have to say. Maybe next time you'll drive back to windsor to pee

Or maybe next time I should just follow the old saying, when in Rome... , right?

**coracle** · March-30-13, 08:46 AM

Here's how one large city manages a bigger problem.

You have seen those architectural wonders of Dubai .

However, none is hooked up to a sewer system!

The two minute video below passes a line of poop trucks and never gets to the end of the line.
An unbelievable amount of sewage is generated by the new high-rises and there is no place to dispose of it

Dubai doesn't have a sewage system for all those big new buildings so they haul it all away in tank trucks.

Look at the number of tank trucks that are waiting to dump their load. This is amazing.

You would have thought that by building all those huge skyscrapers they would have enough sense to put in a sufficient sewage system to haul away all that crap.

You would imagine that those building that look amazingly beautiful were built on a well-planned system of utilities. But, that' NOT TRUE!!

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-pQdjwliLMA?rel=0"

**izzyindetroit** · March-30-13, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by davewindsor

Midtown Woodward is a cesspool. Seriously. There's all this talk about the area being improved with new businesses and revitalization. But, they forgot one thing. And it's such a rudimentary, but important element part of this city--the washrooms. I went to downtown yesterday to see what's changed and what new developments have occurred and walked up Woodward to midtown.

After I crossed the bridge, I had to pee. Nobody seems to have a washroom open to the public in Midtown. And this is in the early afternoon. Store entrances have smelly fresh puddles of pee in front of them. It's unsanitary. It's a cesspool. But, can you blame people? No one lets you use their damn washrooms! Am I supposed to just pee in front of buildings along Woodward like everyone else?

Franchise restaurants lock their washrooms in the middle of the day. Can you believe that? The Starbucks had a 15 person line and the washroom was locked. I would have to wait in line to get a key. Went to Subway. They had a shared washroom and it was locked and the sign on the door of the washroom said washroom closed out of order. How can business leaders talk about cleaning up this city when businesses won't even let you use their washrooms? These are major franchises. Come on. I finally found a McDonald's with an unlocked washroom after walking 20 blocks and waiting an hour. I bought my lunch there out of gratitude, but they got my order wrong anyway.

I can walk into any major franchise fast food restaurant in downtown Windsor and find a washroom to use within a block and not a single washroom is locked. I mean really? Why bother visiting midtown? It's a cesspool.

I am so confused?? What the hell is a washroom??

**Hermod** · March-30-13, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by izzyindetroit

I am so confused?? What the hell is a washroom??

A "pissoir".

**Hermod** · March-30-13, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by RickBeall

Making Midtown habitable should include someplace for the poor people to relieve themselves. Those European solutions look pretty interesting. Areas with little privacy or plumbing that can be hosed off. But you have to provide something for women too.

Women have always been discriminated against. Back in the day, before Detroit became incompetent to maintain the alleys between the blocks, boys on the way home from school could just go into the alley and "condense the fog" behind a convenient garbage can or phone pole. The girls had to just "hold it" till they got home. Cest la vie!

**Honky Tonk** · March-30-13, 09:38 AM

Before the homeless flogging continues, I've witnessed on MANY occasions, young, educated, white, males AND females, sports fans, drunken partyers, whizzing freely on the streets of Detroit. This smell being discussed being particular to Midtown, "where the action is", leads me to believe that's exactly what's going on. I've witnessed it in Joe Louis parking, after hockey games. "Hey, it's a long ride home, and I gotta go". "After all, this is DETROIT, MF'er!" So, the question is, where does the City's obligation stop, and the drinker's responsibility begin? I know people that work in clubs and restaurants in the Midtown area, and they complain about hordes of people coming in, using and messing up the "washrooms", not spending a nickel, then moving on. Are the owners and employees responsible to take care of these people and clean up after them? You have to deal with the mess a few times to understand why washrooms are locked, or signs posted "For Customers ONLY!" Ok then, Let the rock throwing begin.

**RickBeall** · March-30-13, 10:22 AM

I can't believe how you guys have been dumping on DaveWindsor. But I guess its a Detroit thing. He brought up a very real problem. Chinman put it in a larger context. The Dubai reference is rather mind boggling.

I suppose some of the problem is that Detroit has no resources, so that excrement take care of itself. Let it rot on the sidewalk or be washed away by the rain, or fall out of your hair.

It's not exactly something to be proud of.