Subject: Re: A most interesting W.C. in Italy!
Hi Margaret and Les,

There are quite a few of the Paris-style public bathrooms around downtown San Francisco. A former mayor thought it would be a good way to solve the lack-of-public-bathroom problem while at the same time raise money for the city (by selling ads on the outside.)

I've never used one myself, and they have a reputation of being popular places as homeless shelters and convenient places for the locals to "shoot up". At least the city is making some money.

I'm just back from France and it's nice to be back in a country where all the bathrooms have seats and none of them are holes in the floor. Actually the bathrooms are MUCH better there than a few years ago, and you can use the bathroom in any cafe, whether you buy anything or not, which is definitely not the case in the US. (That's what McDonalds are for.)

Al Sonoma, CA, USA