Pissoirs Pulled

From the City this morning...

Downtown Guelph's two open-air pissoirs, installed as a pilot in Guelph's downtown core, were removed today.

The pissoirs at the Macdonell Street municipal parking lot and at the corner of Carden and Wyndham were installed for an eight week trial period as part of a three-pronged approach developed by the Downtown Night Life Task Force to curb urination on public and private property in the downtown core. The Task Force includes representatives from downtown businesses, the Downtown Guelph Business Association, Guelph Police Service, the University of Guelph and the City of Guelph.

Guelph City Council approved the $8,400 pilot project, which covered rental and maintenance costs of the two pissoirs. An additional $4,200 from downtown stakeholders went towards a public education campaign that included posters for downtown establishments and signs for the pissoirs.

City staff monitored the level of use, the number of by-law infringements and number of calls for maintenance during the pilot. Staff will report to City Council on the assessment of the pilot project in the coming weeks.

I'm more interested in that first part of the review, given what happen to me Tuesday night. Well, "happened to me" is not entirely precise, but it was more something I witnessed. I was heading to the Red Brick Cafe on Douglas for a late-ish night caffeine fix when I saw some guy in a hoodie and baggy pants peeing against the wall of the Scotiabank.

Hopefully, what the infringement report will attest to is that slobs will be slobs and trying to placate them by saying "if you've got to pee outside, at least do it in this bowl we've set-up." Hopefully, this is the last we'll hear of this unseemly experiment.