Bathroom laws not new to SM
Taking baths, washing clothes and sleeping in public bathrooms in Santa Monica soon may be illegal.
The City Council is scheduled to consider a new law next Tuesday to address resident and merchant complaints that city-run bathrooms often are dominated by transients.
Violators of the law could be fined $250 or charged with a misdemeanor, which carries a $1,000 penalty or six months in jail.
Santa Monicans for years have complained that public bathrooms in parks and downtown are commandeered by vagrants and mentally ill people. As a result, the bathrooms go unused by people who are unwilling or too afraid to share the facilities.
Libraries in Santa Monica already have specific laws forbidding bathing, shaving or washing hair in public bathrooms, and the new law could be modeled in the same way, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said.
Public bathrooms in Santa Monica have been the subject of regulation from City Hall before.
City Councilman Bob Holbrook said there was an uproar some years ago when the council outlawed people from using a restroom marked for the opposite sex. The idea was to crack down on male drug dealers seeking safe space in female restrooms, but some women were upset that an emergency bathroom option was taken away, Holbrook said.
It appeared likely Wednesday the council would support the new law. Mayor Pam O’Connor pointed out that even private bathrooms sometimes are taken over by homeless people who can be intimidating to some.
“I’ve seen it happen at Macy’s,” she said. “I’ve seen it happen at department stores. It’s, again, part of living in an urban environment and some people are going to be opportunistic about using facilities, and we’re going to set the guidelines for their use — so they’re not abused.”
City Councilman Bobby Shriver also said he would support the law and called upon state and county governments to shoulder more of their responsibility of caring for the mentally ill. Holbrook and City Councilman Kevin McKeown indicated they too would back the law.
Still, not everyone was convinced the law would be without its flaws. John Maceri, executive director of Ocean Park Community Center, the largest provider of social services in Santa Monica, cautioned banning some activities in the bathrooms could be interpreted too broadly.
“It really is hard,” he said, referring to balancing the public bathroom needs of residents and merchants and homeless people. “Bodily functions don’t cease because you don’t have access to restrooms. An unintended consequence (of limiting bathroom access) is that some of the complaints about people urinating and defecating in public become more pronounced.”
Despite concerns, the law would not be used to force homeless people out of bathrooms altogether, said Julie Rusk, City Hall’s human services director. She called it a common sense law tailored to specific acts.
“It’s those kinds of things to make sure people go in and use the restrooms as intended, and not for other things that interfere with the plumbing or monopolize the bathrooms,” she said. “People are doing things like washing clothes... stuffing things in toilets and stuff like that.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2005. Read the original PDF.