this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Right now it depends on the health code, which depends on each city's council and particular situation (like, if the city has no potable tap water, then it makes no sense to have a regulation to serve it for free).

On the EU level, there has been back and forth about:

  • free restrooms for patrons
  • free public restrooms
  • free tap water at bars and restaurants
  • free feminine hygiene products at restrooms (along with toilet paper)

It's an ongoing debate, that on one side would provide all of the above for basic humanitarian reasons, but on the other side has restaurant owners up in arms about extra expenses.

40 years ago

That's about when I saw a guy take a dump directly into the river instead of going to the "pay what you wish" bathroom. They've remodeled the piers since then, removed the stairs going down to water level, put a couple free public restrooms along the way, and enacted stricter regulations that turned the river from foamy brown to murky green.