Page 7 - ATD15Augustus2015
P. 7
U.S. NEWS A7
Saturday 15 August 2015
Hold it! San Francisco uses paint to fight public urination
KRISTIN J. BENDER An attendant looks on as a man enters a Pit Stop public toilet outside a Mission District transit Public urination is a health
Associated Press concern, and keeping the
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — station in San Francisco. The Pit Stop, located by a public wall covered with a repellant paint that city clean is a 24-7 battle,
Public urination has gotten said Kevin Sporer, superin-
so bad in San Francisco makes pee spray back on the offender, is a project operated by San Francisco Public Works tendent of the building re-
that the city has painted pair bureau.
nine walls with a repellant that provides portable toilets and sinks and is part of the city’s latest attempt to clean up urine- The new paint is paying off.
paint that makes pee spray “There’s a lot less activ-
back on the offender. soaked alleyways and walls. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) ity, and the result is notice-
It’s the latest effort to ad- able,” Sporer said.
dress a chronic problem in in the nation using Ultra-Ev- Potential offenders get fair Other efforts also are un- Public urination is illegal, but
a city where the head of er Dry from a Florida-based warning about the con- derway to stop or curb a fine of up to $500 passed
public works calls himself company, and it’s already sequences of urinating on public urination. in San Francisco in 2002 has
Mr. Clean: Walls are coated receiving a stream of que- the coated walls that sit on Solar-powered toilets roll seen little success.
with a clear, liquid repellant ries about the product’s public and private property through city streets several On a recent weekday,
material that goes on much success. around the city. afternoons a week, atten- resident Jon Kolb was in a
like paint. Any urine that hits “We are getting calls from Signs hanging above some dants are manning public public transit plaza in the
it splashes back on a per- all over the place: Wash- walls read: “Hold it! This wall toilets to encourage peo- Mission district, where crews
son’s shoes and pants ington, D.C., Hawaii and is not a public restroom. ple to use them, and city recently painted a low wall
Mohammed Nuru, director Oakland,” said Nuru, who Please respect San Fran- crews will check thousands with the liquid repellant
of San Francisco’s public Tweets under the handle @ cisco and seek relief in an of light posts to make sure paint.
works department, says of- MrCleanSF. appropriate place.” they won’t topple. Kolb said he believes the
fenders will need to make idea is a good one. He has
the mistake only once to seen people who sleep in
get the idea. the plaza become visibly
“If you have to go,” he said, upset when others do their
“go in the right place.” business on the walls.
Nuru got the idea from Ger- “People will actually get
many, where walls in Ham- violent about it,” Kolb said.
burg’s St. Pauli quarter are But will the paint really be a
painted with the material to deterrent?
encourage late-night beer “It would be to me,” he
drinkers to find a bathroom said.
rather than an alleyway. The paint and the labor to
Public urination has long apply the material have
been a problem in San cost the city only a few
Francisco, where a light hundred dollars, as op-
pole corroded by urine re- posed to the $80 an hour
cently fell on a car. The city to steam clean walls and
appears to be the only one sidewalks.q
Beer of champions? Wheaties teams up with brewery
CANDICE CHOI besides being made from Petz said the beer is also in- to endorse the beer. Jared Koerten, an analyst
Associated Press wheat. tended to tie his company The companies also de- for market researcher Euro-
NEW YORK (AP) — These General Mills says to heritage of Minneapolis, clined to disclose the fi- monitor International. Last
Wheaties may not be so the beer will be called which is also home to Gen- nancial terms of their year, sales of Wheaties in
good with milk. HefeWheaties in a eral Mills’ headquarters. agreement. But it could the U.S. were $19.5 million,
Wheaties says it is partner- nod to a German style Fulton will consider mak- be one way General Mills according to Euromonitor.
ing with a craft brewery of beer called hefeweizen, ing the beer more widely counters struggling cereal That’s down from $63.7 mil-
to create a limited-edi- which is typically made available depending on sales, which have suffered lion in 2006.
tion beer. The 16-ounce with more than 50 percent how people react to the as Americans increas- Koerten noted that Wheat-
cans will only be available malted wheat. initial run, he said. ingly reach for options like ies faces strong compe-
in the Minneapolis-St. Paul “We’re not saying it’s a Mike Siemienas, a General Greek yogurt or fast-food tition from other cereal
market starting Aug. 26, breakfast beer, but we’re Mills spokesman, said the breakfast sandwiches in “flakes” such as Kellogg’s
according to Wheaties not saying it’s not,” said company left the develop- the morning. Raisin Bran, that promise
parent company General Ryan Petz, president of Ful- ment of the beer to Fulton. Wheaties in particular has some type of extra feature.
Mills. ton Brewery, the Minneap- He declined to say wheth- seen sales declines, and By comparison, he noted
It’s not exactly clear what olis-based brewery that is er the company plans to is a tiny part of General that Wheaties are very
makes it Wheaties beer, making the beer. tap an athlete or celebrity Mills’ cereal business, said plain.q
