{"id":478,"date":"2007-09-06T15:31:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T22:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/breckenridge\/?p=478"},"modified":"2008-10-25T23:19:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T06:19:40","slug":"no-public-washrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478","title":{"rendered":"No Public Washrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"font-family: trebuchet ms;\">Those who know Fred Johns or are regular readers of his weekly webzine (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.somethingcool.ca\/\">www.somethingcool.ca<\/a>) know that Fred is, at best or at kindest evaluation, a little weird. I shared how it was I found myself filming a soiled batch of paper towels. I now share Fred&#8217;s words on this matter.Personally I am sure that, or at least I maintain, that finding myself in those circumstances is all Fred&#8217;s fault and that I am just a sweet, innocent, NORMAL bystander sucked into the twilight zone by Fred&#8217;s presence.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">It was a fairly interesting set of circumstances that led James Breckenridge to be in a situation where he would be filming a patch of paper towels soiled with human waste, and yet there he was anyway. It wasn\u2019t the first batch of makeshift toilet paper he had ever seen; what made this particular batch stand out from all the others was the fact that he had a video camera in his hand instead of paper towel himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that James Breckenridge used to be homeless. He even wrote a blog about it. But for all the posts he wrote and for all the discussions on the subject he had, nothing could quite compare with the experience of staring down at the spot where another human had wiped their ass in an open clearing just behind a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Abbotsford. No words were needed to describe both the injustice and despair that the soiled towels represented &#8211; the crap on them did that well enough on its own.<\/p>\n<p>James openly admitted to being forced to do a similar thing once or twice himself. \u201cI\u2019ve been pretty lucky,\u201d he said, standing a few feet from the dirtied towels. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly due to good planning \u2013 I was always sure to be in the library or something once during the day so I could use the washroom facilities. But, I\u2019ll admit it, there were times I had to find a bush or the dark side of a building so I could urinate and do my business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James isn\u2019t embarrassed to discuss this topic, nor particularly uncomfortable, which puts him in the minority. Most people aren\u2019t too interested in talking about how the homeless defecate, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t still have to. It\u2019s a taboo topic, one not openly discussed. Conversations about food and shelter tend to take precedence, but this doesn\u2019t erase the physical needs of people without homes and proper washroom facilities. Homeless people are still people and as such, need to urinate and defecate like everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>In Abbotsford, that\u2019s particularly challenging. The majority of businesses in the downtown area have signs with the words \u201cWashrooms for Customer Use Only\u201d clearly inscribed on them. The library at Jubilee Park requires a key for entry. And there are an odd number of local gas stations that have washrooms that are suspiciously \u201cout of order\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Why such concern? It seems some of the local homeless seem to do nasty things while using the restrooms. \u201cThey tend to try and flush needles and stuff down the toilets,\u201d a librarian at the Jubilee Park library said. \u201cThey mess the place up and leave it for us to clean. And it\u2019s not safe for our workers to have to go in their and pick up needles and things. That\u2019s why we require people to use a key.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a no-brainer too that local restaurant owners are uneasy about homeless people coming around and scaring their precious clientele. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple actually,\u201d one restaurant owner (who requested that his name and his restaurant be left out of this article) said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t come here to see homeless people. They come to eat in a friendly, fun and safe environment. They don\u2019t want to be bothered by people who drink and use drugs so we don\u2019t allow those kinds of people to use our washrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All fine and good for the customers, but what about the people that really need to pee, or, in safespeak, do a #2? \u201cIf you\u2019re homeless in this town and you look it, you can try and use the public washrooms in the library,\u201d Breckenridge said, recalling his own experiences as a homeless person. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re like the bears on those TV commercials, shitting in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is no shortage of working toilets along Abbotsford\u2019s main business corridor, but few of them are ever in use. This is what irks Breckenridge so much, especially in a town with so many Christians who frequent the numerous local churches. \u201cThe Christians in this town appear to think that sleeping and shitting in the woods is perfectly acceptable for those homeless animals,\u201d he said. \u201cNow how Christian is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washroom facilities do exist at the local Salvation Army and people do not require a key to use the bathrooms at the Clearbrook library, way the other end of town. But the only other place in the main downtown district that would allow anyone to use their bathrooms was a tiny little comic store one street off the main drag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I let someone use the bathroom?\u201d the owner of the store asked me when I told him his decision to open his bathrooms to the public was a bit of a rare one. \u201cWhen you gotta go, you gotta go, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of the reason he is so kindly is because there\u2019s really nothing of value in his store where the bathrooms are located. \u201cI have some .50 cent comics back there,\u201d the owner said, \u201cso if someone makes off with a couple of those, they\u2019re almost doing me a favour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most businesses, this owner said, do have valuable stuff near the washrooms, like merchandise and money, which is an added incentive to keep the homeless people out. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty safe here and I know as well as anyone what it feels like to have to go but having nowhere to do so. So I guess this is my way of showing a little community spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now if only the rest of the community would get on board. There does seem to be a logical solution to this problem that would appease both the business owners and the homeless \u2013 public washrooms in parks. Even port-a-potties would do, wouldn\u2019t they?<\/p>\n<p>The librarian at the Jubilee Park location says that was already tried. \u201cThey had a port-a-potty in the park,\u201d she recalled. \u201cBut then they burned it down. So now they have nothing.\u201d She shrugged. \u201cWhose fault is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whose fault, indeed. It\u2019s a tough scene to imagine: it\u2019s cold, probably dark and a homeless person finds him or herself alone with nowhere to take a crap. They have managed to scrounge up a clump of paper towel which is all they have to wipe their ass with. It\u2019s hard to fathom the indignity a person must feel when they lower their ripped and torn pants and are forced to defecate, exposed to the world, with no privacy, the same way a coyote or a dog must.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThus it is that the homeless are forced to either hold it in indefinitely or urinate and defecate outdoors like animals,\u201d Breckenridge said. \u201cPerhaps, with even less dignity than animals considering there are businesses out there whose sole function is to clean up after people\u2019s dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who takes care of the human crap? Likely the homeless themselves, who are too embarrassed to leave it for someone else to find. Save for this one homeless person, who left the batch of soiled paper towels, perhaps for someone to find. And someone did find them \u2013 a journalist with a video camera and a former homeless man. As this odd pair stands above the dirty mattress the homeless person slept on and peers over at the nearby soiled towels, an idea forms. The former homeless man trudges off into the thick brush but returns a few moments later, with an item procured from a local convenience store.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I\u2019ll leave a little present,\u201d James Breckenridge says, placing a roll of toilet paper atop the mattress. \u201cFor next time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those who know Fred Johns or are regular readers of his weekly webzine (www.somethingcool.ca) know that Fred is, at best or at kindest evaluation, a little weird. I shared how it was I found myself filming a soiled batch of paper towels. I now share Fred&#8217;s words on this matter.Personally I am sure that, or at least I maintain, that finding myself in those circumstances is all Fred&#8217;s fault and that I am just a sweet, innocent, NORMAL bystander sucked into the twilight zone by Fred&#8217;s presence. It was a fairly interesting set of circumstances that led James Breckenridge to be in a situation where he would be filming a patch of paper towels soiled with human waste, and yet there he was anyway. It wasn\u2019t the first batch of makeshift toilet paper he had ever seen; what made this particular batch stand out from all the others was the fact that he had a video camera in his hand instead of paper towel himself. It\u2019s no secret that James Breckenridge used to be homeless. He even wrote a blog about it. But for all the posts he wrote and for all the discussions on the subject he had, nothing could quite compare with the experience of staring down at the spot where another human had wiped their ass in an open clearing just behind a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Abbotsford. No words were needed to describe both the injustice and despair that the soiled towels represented &#8211; the crap on them did that well enough on its own. James openly admitted to being forced to do a similar thing once or twice himself. \u201cI\u2019ve been pretty lucky,\u201d he said, standing a few feet from the dirtied towels. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly due to good planning \u2013 I was always sure to be in the library or something once during the day so I could use the washroom facilities. But, I\u2019ll admit it, there were times I had to find a bush or the dark side of a building so I could urinate and do my business.\u201d James isn\u2019t embarrassed to discuss this topic, nor particularly uncomfortable, which puts him in the minority. Most people aren\u2019t too interested in talking about how the homeless defecate, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t still have to. It\u2019s a taboo topic, one not openly discussed. Conversations about food and shelter tend to take precedence, but this doesn\u2019t erase the physical needs of people without homes and proper washroom facilities. Homeless people are still people and as such, need to urinate and defecate like everyone else. In Abbotsford, that\u2019s particularly challenging. The majority of businesses in the downtown area have signs with the words \u201cWashrooms for Customer Use Only\u201d clearly inscribed on them. The library at Jubilee Park requires a key for entry. And there are an odd number of local gas stations that have washrooms that are suspiciously \u201cout of order\u201d. Why such concern? It seems some of the local homeless seem to do nasty things while using the restrooms. \u201cThey tend to try and flush needles and stuff down the toilets,\u201d a librarian at the Jubilee Park library said. \u201cThey mess the place up and leave it for us to clean. And it\u2019s not safe for our workers to have to go in their and pick up needles and things. That\u2019s why we require people to use a key.\u201d It\u2019s a no-brainer too that local restaurant owners are uneasy about homeless people coming around and scaring their precious clientele. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple actually,\u201d one restaurant owner (who requested that his name and his restaurant be left out of this article) said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t come here to see homeless people. They come to eat in a friendly, fun and safe environment. They don\u2019t want to be bothered by people who drink and use drugs so we don\u2019t allow those kinds of people to use our washrooms.\u201d All fine and good for the customers, but what about the people that really need to pee, or, in safespeak, do a #2? \u201cIf you\u2019re homeless in this town and you look it, you can try and use the public washrooms in the library,\u201d Breckenridge said, recalling his own experiences as a homeless person. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re like the bears on those TV commercials, shitting in the woods.\u201d There is no shortage of working toilets along Abbotsford\u2019s main business corridor, but few of them are ever in use. This is what irks Breckenridge so much, especially in a town with so many Christians who frequent the numerous local churches. \u201cThe Christians in this town appear to think that sleeping and shitting in the woods is perfectly acceptable for those homeless animals,\u201d he said. \u201cNow how Christian is that?\u201d Washroom facilities do exist at the local Salvation Army and people do not require a key to use the bathrooms at the Clearbrook library, way the other end of town. But the only other place in the main downtown district that would allow anyone to use their bathrooms was a tiny little comic store one street off the main drag. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I let someone use the bathroom?\u201d the owner of the store asked me when I told him his decision to open his bathrooms to the public was a bit of a rare one. \u201cWhen you gotta go, you gotta go, right?\u201d Part of the reason he is so kindly is because there\u2019s really nothing of value in his store where the bathrooms are located. \u201cI have some .50 cent comics back there,\u201d the owner said, \u201cso if someone makes off with a couple of those, they\u2019re almost doing me a favour.\u201d Most businesses, this owner said, do have valuable stuff near the washrooms, like merchandise and money, which is an added incentive to keep the homeless people out. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty safe here and I know as well as anyone what it feels like to have to go but having nowhere to do so. So I guess this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">No Public Washrooms<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeless"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No Public Washrooms - James W. Breckenridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Public Washrooms - James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Those who know Fred Johns or are regular readers of his weekly webzine (www.somethingcool.ca) know that Fred is, at best or at kindest evaluation, a little weird. I shared how it was I found myself filming a soiled batch of paper towels. I now share Fred&#8217;s words on this matter.Personally I am sure that, or at least I maintain, that finding myself in those circumstances is all Fred&#8217;s fault and that I am just a sweet, innocent, NORMAL bystander sucked into the twilight zone by Fred&#8217;s presence. It was a fairly interesting set of circumstances that led James Breckenridge to be in a situation where he would be filming a patch of paper towels soiled with human waste, and yet there he was anyway. It wasn\u2019t the first batch of makeshift toilet paper he had ever seen; what made this particular batch stand out from all the others was the fact that he had a video camera in his hand instead of paper towel himself. It\u2019s no secret that James Breckenridge used to be homeless. He even wrote a blog about it. But for all the posts he wrote and for all the discussions on the subject he had, nothing could quite compare with the experience of staring down at the spot where another human had wiped their ass in an open clearing just behind a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Abbotsford. No words were needed to describe both the injustice and despair that the soiled towels represented &#8211; the crap on them did that well enough on its own. James openly admitted to being forced to do a similar thing once or twice himself. \u201cI\u2019ve been pretty lucky,\u201d he said, standing a few feet from the dirtied towels. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly due to good planning \u2013 I was always sure to be in the library or something once during the day so I could use the washroom facilities. But, I\u2019ll admit it, there were times I had to find a bush or the dark side of a building so I could urinate and do my business.\u201d James isn\u2019t embarrassed to discuss this topic, nor particularly uncomfortable, which puts him in the minority. Most people aren\u2019t too interested in talking about how the homeless defecate, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t still have to. It\u2019s a taboo topic, one not openly discussed. Conversations about food and shelter tend to take precedence, but this doesn\u2019t erase the physical needs of people without homes and proper washroom facilities. Homeless people are still people and as such, need to urinate and defecate like everyone else. In Abbotsford, that\u2019s particularly challenging. The majority of businesses in the downtown area have signs with the words \u201cWashrooms for Customer Use Only\u201d clearly inscribed on them. The library at Jubilee Park requires a key for entry. And there are an odd number of local gas stations that have washrooms that are suspiciously \u201cout of order\u201d. Why such concern? It seems some of the local homeless seem to do nasty things while using the restrooms. \u201cThey tend to try and flush needles and stuff down the toilets,\u201d a librarian at the Jubilee Park library said. \u201cThey mess the place up and leave it for us to clean. And it\u2019s not safe for our workers to have to go in their and pick up needles and things. That\u2019s why we require people to use a key.\u201d It\u2019s a no-brainer too that local restaurant owners are uneasy about homeless people coming around and scaring their precious clientele. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple actually,\u201d one restaurant owner (who requested that his name and his restaurant be left out of this article) said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t come here to see homeless people. They come to eat in a friendly, fun and safe environment. They don\u2019t want to be bothered by people who drink and use drugs so we don\u2019t allow those kinds of people to use our washrooms.\u201d All fine and good for the customers, but what about the people that really need to pee, or, in safespeak, do a #2? \u201cIf you\u2019re homeless in this town and you look it, you can try and use the public washrooms in the library,\u201d Breckenridge said, recalling his own experiences as a homeless person. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re like the bears on those TV commercials, shitting in the woods.\u201d There is no shortage of working toilets along Abbotsford\u2019s main business corridor, but few of them are ever in use. This is what irks Breckenridge so much, especially in a town with so many Christians who frequent the numerous local churches. \u201cThe Christians in this town appear to think that sleeping and shitting in the woods is perfectly acceptable for those homeless animals,\u201d he said. \u201cNow how Christian is that?\u201d Washroom facilities do exist at the local Salvation Army and people do not require a key to use the bathrooms at the Clearbrook library, way the other end of town. But the only other place in the main downtown district that would allow anyone to use their bathrooms was a tiny little comic store one street off the main drag. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I let someone use the bathroom?\u201d the owner of the store asked me when I told him his decision to open his bathrooms to the public was a bit of a rare one. \u201cWhen you gotta go, you gotta go, right?\u201d Part of the reason he is so kindly is because there\u2019s really nothing of value in his store where the bathrooms are located. \u201cI have some .50 cent comics back there,\u201d the owner said, \u201cso if someone makes off with a couple of those, they\u2019re almost doing me a favour.\u201d Most businesses, this owner said, do have valuable stuff near the washrooms, like merchandise and money, which is an added incentive to keep the homeless people out. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty safe here and I know as well as anyone what it feels like to have to go but having nowhere to do so. So I guess this &hellip; Continue reading No Public Washrooms &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-06T22:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-10-26T06:19:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\\\/?p=478#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\\\/?p=478\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James W. 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Breckenridge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"No Public Washrooms - James W. Breckenridge","og_description":"Those who know Fred Johns or are regular readers of his weekly webzine (www.somethingcool.ca) know that Fred is, at best or at kindest evaluation, a little weird. I shared how it was I found myself filming a soiled batch of paper towels. I now share Fred&#8217;s words on this matter.Personally I am sure that, or at least I maintain, that finding myself in those circumstances is all Fred&#8217;s fault and that I am just a sweet, innocent, NORMAL bystander sucked into the twilight zone by Fred&#8217;s presence. It was a fairly interesting set of circumstances that led James Breckenridge to be in a situation where he would be filming a patch of paper towels soiled with human waste, and yet there he was anyway. It wasn\u2019t the first batch of makeshift toilet paper he had ever seen; what made this particular batch stand out from all the others was the fact that he had a video camera in his hand instead of paper towel himself. It\u2019s no secret that James Breckenridge used to be homeless. He even wrote a blog about it. But for all the posts he wrote and for all the discussions on the subject he had, nothing could quite compare with the experience of staring down at the spot where another human had wiped their ass in an open clearing just behind a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Abbotsford. No words were needed to describe both the injustice and despair that the soiled towels represented &#8211; the crap on them did that well enough on its own. James openly admitted to being forced to do a similar thing once or twice himself. \u201cI\u2019ve been pretty lucky,\u201d he said, standing a few feet from the dirtied towels. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly due to good planning \u2013 I was always sure to be in the library or something once during the day so I could use the washroom facilities. But, I\u2019ll admit it, there were times I had to find a bush or the dark side of a building so I could urinate and do my business.\u201d James isn\u2019t embarrassed to discuss this topic, nor particularly uncomfortable, which puts him in the minority. Most people aren\u2019t too interested in talking about how the homeless defecate, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t still have to. It\u2019s a taboo topic, one not openly discussed. Conversations about food and shelter tend to take precedence, but this doesn\u2019t erase the physical needs of people without homes and proper washroom facilities. Homeless people are still people and as such, need to urinate and defecate like everyone else. In Abbotsford, that\u2019s particularly challenging. The majority of businesses in the downtown area have signs with the words \u201cWashrooms for Customer Use Only\u201d clearly inscribed on them. The library at Jubilee Park requires a key for entry. And there are an odd number of local gas stations that have washrooms that are suspiciously \u201cout of order\u201d. Why such concern? It seems some of the local homeless seem to do nasty things while using the restrooms. \u201cThey tend to try and flush needles and stuff down the toilets,\u201d a librarian at the Jubilee Park library said. \u201cThey mess the place up and leave it for us to clean. And it\u2019s not safe for our workers to have to go in their and pick up needles and things. That\u2019s why we require people to use a key.\u201d It\u2019s a no-brainer too that local restaurant owners are uneasy about homeless people coming around and scaring their precious clientele. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple actually,\u201d one restaurant owner (who requested that his name and his restaurant be left out of this article) said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t come here to see homeless people. They come to eat in a friendly, fun and safe environment. They don\u2019t want to be bothered by people who drink and use drugs so we don\u2019t allow those kinds of people to use our washrooms.\u201d All fine and good for the customers, but what about the people that really need to pee, or, in safespeak, do a #2? \u201cIf you\u2019re homeless in this town and you look it, you can try and use the public washrooms in the library,\u201d Breckenridge said, recalling his own experiences as a homeless person. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re like the bears on those TV commercials, shitting in the woods.\u201d There is no shortage of working toilets along Abbotsford\u2019s main business corridor, but few of them are ever in use. This is what irks Breckenridge so much, especially in a town with so many Christians who frequent the numerous local churches. \u201cThe Christians in this town appear to think that sleeping and shitting in the woods is perfectly acceptable for those homeless animals,\u201d he said. \u201cNow how Christian is that?\u201d Washroom facilities do exist at the local Salvation Army and people do not require a key to use the bathrooms at the Clearbrook library, way the other end of town. But the only other place in the main downtown district that would allow anyone to use their bathrooms was a tiny little comic store one street off the main drag. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I let someone use the bathroom?\u201d the owner of the store asked me when I told him his decision to open his bathrooms to the public was a bit of a rare one. \u201cWhen you gotta go, you gotta go, right?\u201d Part of the reason he is so kindly is because there\u2019s really nothing of value in his store where the bathrooms are located. \u201cI have some .50 cent comics back there,\u201d the owner said, \u201cso if someone makes off with a couple of those, they\u2019re almost doing me a favour.\u201d Most businesses, this owner said, do have valuable stuff near the washrooms, like merchandise and money, which is an added incentive to keep the homeless people out. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty safe here and I know as well as anyone what it feels like to have to go but having nowhere to do so. So I guess this &hellip; Continue reading No Public Washrooms &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478","og_site_name":"James W. Breckenridge","article_published_time":"2007-09-06T22:31:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-10-26T06:19:40+00:00","author":"James W. Breckenridge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James W. Breckenridge","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=478"},"author":{"name":"James W. 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