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If you live in the East Village or LES, you are familiar with the late-night ritual of drunk guys peeing on the street. We're always suprised at how little shame men seem to have at dropping trough in public, and how indiscriminantly they scatter their urine. On Sunday mornings in particular, everything seems drenched in pee-- trees, apartment building walls, phone booths, etc. While we thought this problem was intractable, happily Joa Herrenknecht did not-- he came up with this beautiful ceramic pee-tree-- perfect for planting in public spots all around town. We envison putting one of these on every block in New York with a bar. The base of the tree connects directly with the sewer, so the pee goes where it belongs. A more naturalistic model comes from Eric Morel-- it could be offered in classier neighborhoods. Sorry, ladies, no solution for you just yet! [Via WMMNA.]
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Great Idea! I for one am all for it. I had a dream once where the city had installed public urinals on the sides of buildings, great idea as well, the dream wasn't so hot though as i think i mistook my dresser for one of these urinals and decided to urinate all over some t-shirts.
That's "dropping trou" (or "trow" if you must) -- short for "trousers." Not "trough," which rhymes with "off." I guess it is a word you COULD use in this context, as in "the drunk guys turn the planters into pee-troughs."
they actually have these in London
really? do you know of any pictures of these london pee trees?
They have similar facilities set up in Amsterdam on the weekends, but instead of pee trees they're called pissoires. They go up Friday night and are taken down on Sunday. The target demographic appeared to be incontinent Brits.
Drunk (or sober) men pissing in the street -- is that behavior we really want to encourage?
This is disgusting.
It does seem like a sorta sick thing, and isn't public urination verboten?
Which reminds me, is there any progress on these on the street pay loos?
what is wrong with using real trees?
Now of course I always try to not pee in the street if at all possible, usually i try to find an open place of business i can sneak in and use their urinals (such as an open starbucks) and I always make a point to try to hit the bar bathroom before I leave. Unless of course the bar has like 1 bathroom and 10 people standing in line and I'm about to piss myself.
But the point being is sometimes you got to go, drunk or sober and the amount of available restrooms at night drastically decreases. If people have to go, they will. The only way to really help this situation is to either set up free removable bathrooms or to install free permanent ones.
Pay toilets are great and all, but when you're piss drunk you can't be assed to find some change to use the bathroom when you could just piss for free on the street.
Not to mention our large homeless population needs a place to urinate as well.
what's that song again?
oh yeah...
"it's a privilege to pee."
Yes, we have seen the Pissoirs of London. They are set up in fairly open but still well trafficked places (like Union Square would be a good candidate for a couple of 'em.) It's about the size of a portopotty, but with no walls. It's divided into quarters with a little urinal in each part, and men just step up and do their business. We were pretty baffled.
This is a wonderful idea for men. I don't care how indecent it may seem to have people peeing in the streets; the fact is, people have bladders, and when they fill up and there's nowhere to let loose, you can't just have them pull a Tycho Brahe and end up dead just because you wouldn't give them a place to pee.
But women keep getting the short end of the stick here. We pee just as much, but have half the opportunities for relieving ourselves. Even if you added a funnel attachment to the pee trees, only a woman wearing a skirt could use it without exposing herself, and STILL it would be an unsanitary mess, and STILL there's no toilet paper involved. I think pay toilets would be an excellent idea. Sure, men might opt for peeing in the street for free, but for women it would be a godsend. I'd use one.
A possible solution for us girls - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3849381.stm
If it's OK for dogs to piss all over the place (not to mention crap), why can't men???
Also there is a thing called a "shenis" that chicks can use.
How prissy you peeps are about piss!
^Dogs lick their balls and drink outa the toilet bowl, too....
i'm totally grossed out.
if an idiotic dude is drunk enough to pee in public, what's going to motivate him to even zip up his pants, especially if he's just a real pervert.. i think promoting this dog/man/uncivilized pee behavior will only up the testosterone on the streets fri/sat nights and that can lead to bad news...
I predict they would get clogged up with trash quite quickly, creating an ugly overflow situation. Nonetheless, I am in favor. People already pee in public all the time, so a designated area seems like a good idea. Any claims that it would create new perverts is absurd.
Plus, the New York Missed Connections section will be golden.
If women are capable of not peeing on the streets and holding it until they can find an appropriate place to go, so are men.
Agreed, wearadiaper!
Just because these fools love piss all over my neighborhood now that it is a newly-created bar mecca, doesn't mean I want to encourage their behavior.
Toilet training is the better option!
And Larry, people aren't prissy about piss, but I hate seeing piss all over the side of my building in the morning and smelling it when I take out my trash.
It's way unsanitary, it smells, & it's an insult. That's not being prissy...
I treat my neighborhood with respect. Sorry, but people actually live in that bar wonderland back drop you go staggering thru & pissing on every weekend.
I can't even begin to count the number of women (okay, usually young drunk women) I have seen dropping trou and pissing on the street. Don't put this all on the men. Women are just as gross as men, they just hide it better.
I wonder why nobody complains about this in Chelsea?
I don't know why people on here would suggest such un-useful ideas as toilet training. I know how to use a toilet ma'am, but if I happen to be going somewhere late at night and there isn't an available toilet for me to use what am i supposed to do? I'm not going to piss my pants, I wouldn't expect you to either.
How about you support ideas like public restrooms, that way you don't have to wake up to urine. And I'm sure, or atleast I hope so, that you had a point in your life where you went out and had fun and maybe thought there were things that should be created for the better.
Just sayin' ya know?
Cheers, here's to pissing in the street until you provide me a better place to do it. Sorry.
And I still think urinals flush mounted into the sides of buildings like an atm is a decent idea, but i can see those being awkward during the day.
i'd rather have a tree in front of my apartment building than a porcelain piss pole.
actually this pee tree made by Lady " girl" made this pee tree!
actually this pee tree made by Lady
" girl" made this pee tree!