Althouse: "A Portage company will stop providing portable toilets used by the homeless at the [Madison] City-County Building... due to health hazards, behavior problems, and fears for employee safety."

November 24, 2015

"A Portage company will stop providing portable toilets used by the homeless at the [Madison] City-County Building... due to health hazards, behavior problems, and fears for employee safety."

"The Country Plumber notified the city it will stop providing and servicing the toilets when a contract expires on Dec. 31 due to finding massive quantities of hypodermic needles, and users missing the toilet, smearing feces, and leaving condoms and other sex leftovers, a memo from the Parks Division to Mayor Paul Soglin says."

And other sex leftovers...

UPDATE: Madison.com seems to have flushed the story. The link doesn't work and I can't find the story searching the site. I assure you that I got the quoted material at the link that doesn't work anymore.

29 comments:

hiawatha biscayne said...: feces? hypodermic needles? why, i can hardly believe that.; 11/24/15, 6:27 PM
The Bergall said...: So much for good intentions?; 11/24/15, 6:53 PM
jr565 said...: Were any of those smeared feces in the shape of a swastika? Because that building may be a hotbed of racism sexism and any other ism that can be imagined.; 11/24/15, 6:59 PM
Michael K said...: "Black lives Matter !"; 11/24/15, 7:00 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Oh, wow! Homeless people have lots of behavioral issues. I mean, why weren't the good people of Madison told about this before.....; 11/24/15, 7:00 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: See, this is what I don't get. Why cannot homeless people, or poor people, treat other people's property with respect? It's not just Port-A-Potties. If you've ever entered the bathrooms of the Richmond (CA) BART station ... well, just don't, that's all. For some bizarre reason, the ones in (say) North Berkeley on the same line always seem pristine. It's almost as though they ... served different populations, or something. Or, of course, their upkeep was licensed to different firms. In which case, Richmond seriously needs to get its (not all metaphorical) shit together.; 11/24/15, 7:09 PM
MadisonMan said...: Can't fault them for not wanting to deal with hazards like that.

I suspect the next contract will be a lot more costly. Luckily, Madison has money to burn, apparently.; 11/24/15, 7:17 PM
Phil 314 said...: Laslo bait; 11/24/15, 7:19 PM
garage mahal said...: See! The homeless are hopeless. And Trump is Our Savior. He'll build a wall, a big huge beautiful wall, - let me tell you it may have to be a Big Huge Beautiful Moat -- to protect you from homeless people that have to take a shit in the public square.; 11/24/15, 7:19 PM
Stephen Taylor said...: This story has gone down the memory hole. Dead link.; 11/24/15, 7:29 PM
garage mahal said...: And Trump will make the homeless pay for the Homeless Shit Wall/Moat. That's the great thing about Trump: he'll make all your perceived enemies pay for your protection. What's greater than a billionaire that sells trucker hats to Real America marked "Make America Great Again"

Who's against that!; 11/24/15, 7:39 PM
donald said...: No doubt Garage Mahal is masturbating in those stalls and eating feces. And sex leavings.; 11/24/15, 7:41 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "This story has gone down the memory hole. Dead link."

Thanks. I put an update on the post. Madison.com seems to have taken the story donwn.; 11/24/15, 7:55 PM
Michael K said...: "to protect you from homeless people that have to take a shit in the public square."

No, they don't "have to" They want to.

Do a bit of reading about mental illness.

Oh, sorry. I forgot you can't read.; 11/24/15, 8:02 PM
n.n said...: Keep Madison... not so weird.; 11/24/15, 8:08 PM
Drago said...: Clearly, leftist policies enacted by leftists in a leftist enclave with the usual lefty results requires an immediate diversion onto Donald Trump.

Well played "garage -really, the Occupy Wall Streeters are just like ou and me..except for the rapes, pooping on police cars, body lice, etc!!- mahal!"

Garage, why wait? Invite a couple of these poor misunderstood lifestyle-choicer types to live with you for a bit.

Its time to live your values!...such as they are...; 11/24/15, 8:25 PM
FullMoon said...: garage mahal said... [hush][hide comment]

See! The homeless are hopeless. And Trump is Our Savior. He'll build a wall, a big huge beautiful wall, - let me tell you it may have to be a Big Huge Beautiful Moat -- to protect you from homeless people that have to take a shit in the public square.

Ya know, we got some crazy libs here in Ca. but at least our homeless are not required to shit in the public square. They can shit anywhere they want, and they do.
BTW, why do you assume it is the homeless creating a problem? Are you a homelesaphobe?
My money is on college students. They are always pulling pranks.; 11/24/15, 8:31 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: I was taking photos at a local Catholic church and there were signs posted on their outdoor restrooms that they no longer provide access to the general public because the church can not afford to repeatedly repair the damages caused by the general public. Two other public facilities were suggested.; 11/24/15, 8:44 PM
William said...: This is an opportunity for both the activist greens and the SJW types. Anyone can volunteer to serve dinner on Thanksgiving to homeless people, but it takes real courage and commitment to provide the homeless with clean, comfortable rest rooms. Anyone who volunteers to clean up those facilities has my respect. That's not just signifying virtue. That's virtue.......Maybe some of the former Occupy troops can get together and form a brigade of shock troops to go around to these sites and clean them up. Utopia begins with such considerate acts. They will shame us all if they take up such activities.; 11/24/15, 9:17 PM
Anonymous said...: BTW, why do you assume it is the homeless creating a problem? Are you a homelesaphobe?

Oh for sure. He who has no money is the root of all evil.; 11/24/15, 9:34 PM
The Godfather said...: I've said this before in comments on Althouse.com, but I'll say it again: For the large majority of homeless people their problem is not that they don't have homes; homelessness is a consequence of their mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. There was a well-publicized story in Washington, DC about a wealthy woman who died and willed a house to a homeless man who lived in a public park in her neighborhood. There was great fanfare when he was moved into his new home. Within two months, he was back living in the park. (I'd bet he left the house trashed, but I don't know that for sure.)

I did a fair amount of pro bono legal work for organizations that were making serious efforts to help the homeless, to get them off drugs and booze, to get them psychiatric treatment, to get them job training, to teach them how to care for themselves and their surroundings. The success rate for these efforts wasn't high, but they helped who they helped. Whoever said in the foregoing comments that you'd really show your commitment to the homeless if you cleaned up the toilet after them may have been serious or may have been snarking (I don't remember), but in fact that's exactly correct. Solving serious problems is hard.; 11/24/15, 9:58 PM
Temujin said...: But they have names and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected. Wait, no.; 11/24/15, 10:39 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Every year I donate money to The Midnight Mission which serves the homeless in Los Angeles. Their fundraisers usually involve people who were homeless, but whose lives have been turned around by services provided by the Mission. They feed thousands of people a week--but their successes are pitifully few. The Godfather is right-solving serious problems is hard. God love and bless the people who commit great effort to solving those problems.

We did the mentally ill in this country no favor by shutting mental hospitals down.; 11/24/15, 11:56 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: garage mahal said...See! The homeless are hopeless. And Trump is Our Savior. He'll build a wall, a big huge beautiful wall, - let me tell you it may have to be a Big Huge Beautiful Moat -- to protect you from homeless people that have to take a shit in the public square.

Oh garage, no vision. What Trump'll propose will be a massive pedestrian overpass to Canada.

Damn I miss Frisky Dingo.; 11/24/15, 11:59 PM
Chris N said...: Some ideas for here in Seattle:

Get more of 'em all riding around on public transportation at a loss, instead of sitting at library computers
Give out free booze and food at Seattle Storm games for promo photos
Have them tuck in your children at night

Make them feel like members of the community, or children, or adult babies, whichever comes first
makeallofSeattle a tent city
Put up more Lenin statues...made out of chocolate

All Priuses come with a homeless chauffeur
Unionize
Give them all degrees in social work so they help themselves,; 11/25/15, 4:07 AM
Anonymous said...: William said...
This is an opportunity for both the activist greens and the SJW types. Anyone can volunteer to serve dinner on Thanksgiving to homeless people, but it takes real courage and commitment to provide the homeless with clean, comfortable rest rooms

Well said if you add the classic Political types who roll in for the Holidays to do the soup kitchen foto op...

PS: Beyond a doubt, worst job I ever had was burning shit, but I wasn't no stinkin volunteer :)

http://www.vietnamsoldier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/print30-300x300.jpg; 11/25/15, 6:29 AM
Rusty said...: Just a heads up.
When in that windy city Take a cab everywhere you need to go and under no circumstances walk in Lower Wacker Drive.
If you park in the Grant Park Garage, park in a well lit area so as to avoid the ever present, ah, human detritus.; 11/25/15, 7:30 AM
Peter said...: "If you've ever entered the bathrooms of the Richmond (CA) BART station ... well, just don't,"

I'm surprised BART still has bathrooms open to the public. The NYC subway removed bathrooms decades ago (although I think that was more a spiral of crime in the bathrooms causing few to use them until even muggers didn't bother going there).

BTW, Salvation Army operates some homeless shelters, but they do it by expelling guests who won't obey the house rules, which not only include no drugs or alcohol but often include a requirement to do some work (such as cleanup) in the shelter.

Which is to say, their charity is not just another "we give you free stuff" outfit, it's based on a demand that recipients work at least as hard to rehabilitate themselves as others work to help them.; 11/25/15, 9:05 AM
Anthony said...: BART closed the bathrooms in the downtown San Francisco stations after 9/11. So now they have to clean shit out of the escalators.; 11/25/15, 12:16 PM