[lnelson]

OMG, I was walking my dog yesterday on 5th between 14th and 15th and there was a kid peeing into the street. It was early evening, still light out, lots of people around and stores open, and this kid is just standing there and peeing onto someone's tire. I'm guessing the kid was about 7. He was not a little tiny kid. An adult man who I'm guessing was in some way affiliated with him, maybe his father, was standing behind and watching as this kid just took care of business. There was nothing subtle or protected about this scenario, all was bared for passers-by to see.

Some of you may recall that I wrote about a similar al fresco peeing event a couple months ago (in "*unorthodox* father-son bonding observed on 14th street"). I've lived someplace my whole life, as in been alive and dwelling somewhere, often in places that were populated by other people, some of them children. Yet I never saw a single street pee-er. Now I've seen two in the same neighborhood (the February "event" was 14th between 7th and 8th).

Um, ew? I see there are plenty of things one can say to a dog owner who leaves poop on the sidewalk...What might one say to an adult whose apparent ward is micterating on the street? "Um, sir, your apparent ward is peeing on the street" doesn't seem adequate when the dude is standing there and watching.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Similar experiences?

PS, Yes, I recognize the slight irony of the fact that I was walking my dog at the time.

[Flexichick]

I think you need to train your dog to pee on these people
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[bullyboy]

I've seen more public urination and defecation in the time I've lived in this neighborhood than I want to think about.

Say to the man, "My dog wants to know if he can go pee in YOUR bathroom."

[Mamacita]

CURB YOUR CHILD!
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[Em26]

Hey Mama wtf are you doing up??

Get to bed!!!

Next time you see someone going #1 outside you should holler really loud and pretend that you're talking to someone and say "Eww!!!! that dude is taking a piss !! No don't take a picture!!"

Maybe they'll stop and run off? Maybe they'll turn around and say cheese?

Hmmm.
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[stutter]

This is pretty common place in Sunset Park. When I go over to 8th ave I see it all the time, but the children are usually much younger, 3-4, not as old as 7.

[raw]

I saw the same thing with an eight or ten year old boy, who was with his mother and a young girl. It was near 9th Street and 4th Avenue (where there are many businesses with bathrooms) around 1 pm -- LUNCH hour/EATING time/FOOD break -- and there were lots of people around and vehicles passing by.

I can understand if you're out in the middle of the woods hiking or in the country camping without other people around, but in an urban environment this doesn't jive with me.

Nudity does not offend me personally, but it is not cool to show off your junk to people who are sensitive to that type of thing. Kids who are going to live here forever should be trained to conform to the society they will be adults in.

Whipping out your penis in broad day light in a crowded street might feel good, but it's a "no no" according to America's mainstream cultural values. Life would be so much easier if it wasn't this way, but it IS thus way. Yes, running to the nearest dirty public bathroom is not fun, but we must do it -- or put tubes on our penises that are connected to plastic bags that hide in our pants. Showing your privates and pee to the public is a no no.

If I'm engaged in "sidewalk dining," a "stoop picnic" or stepping out of Mc Donald's, the last thing I want to see is a yellow arch of urine that will leave a stench intensified by the hot sun.

Can you imagine if everyone living in Brooklyn peeed on the sidewalk today? Damn. We'd stink all the way down to Florida.
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© karlthedruid 2007

[lnelson]

Wow, this is a way less pro-outdoor peeing crowd than the one that replied to my post last time. Right on, people! Not to put too fine a point on it, but the kid actually seemed to be enjoying himself. He was, like, waving his penis around and spraying all over the damn place! It went on for so long that I had time to be amazed at how much pee he'd been holding in and have a conversation about outdoor peeing with a mostly toothless woman who wanted to pet my dog and didn't seem to have a problem with what the kid was doing.

BTW, how come this side of the Slope never makes it into the New York Times?! They're always complaining about how hyper-yuppified we are. First WMD, now alleged gentility in the jungles of Brookyn...They really need to beef up their research department.

[Karl the Druid]

pee-er pressure
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[Flexichick]

I'm always amazed at how much pee guys can produce. Me, I'd have died if I had held that much urine for that long.

TMI, but I had to.
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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!

[bullyboy]

You ain't from around here, are you?

You yuppies with your "no outdoor peeing" obsessions need to go back to where you came from. Outdoor peeing is a proud tradition in [neighborhood name] and it's people like you who want to destroy everything that we hold dear. Such as our penises. Outdoors. Peeing.

[NYkittyNY]

So, no, I do not have kids myself, but my friends who do say that area businesses can be very unaccommodating to parents and children who ask to use the facilities. I was with my friend when a shop refused her 4 year old son, who was near tears he had to pee so bad. And kids are funny like that, cause one minute they say they are fine, and suddenly its life or death.

I would like to think that if I were a parent, I would at the very least make an effort to find a restaurant bathroom, but if I thought my kid was at risk of peeing his pants, I would let him pee in public. Maybe up till age 8 or so. After that its just gross, and they should learn to hold it in already.

[bullyboy]

Say what you will about Starbucks, they're the closest thing Manhattan has to a system of public restrooms...

[redmenace]

[Jamzer]

Wow - a dog owner complaining about a kid peeing in the street. Just a little bit of irony in my opinion. Is dog urine that much less disgusting? At least no kid has ever taken a shit on my sidewalk and failed to clean it up. In my jaded opinion (parent and not a dog owner) a little kid's wee wee is less of a problem than dogs pissing and crapping all over the place.

[bogframe]

Ya know, go back a hundred years or so, before everyone had indoor plumbing, and even ladies in long dresses were urinating in the streets. We're getting spoiled!

[jeffrey]

Ya know, go back 1500 years before that and even men in long dresses were urinating in the streets.


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[LongTimeSloper]

As a parent and a dog owner, I must say, I don't see this as such a big deal. Granted, i wouldn't allow it if my son was over a certain age, (say, 5 or 6), but, not every store, restaurant etc. will let your kid use their bathroom. Sometimes even if you offer to buy something. I had it with a donut shop a few years ago, my kid was actually shaking he had to go so badly and they still refused me. Luckily, a pizza place a few doors down allowed him to use their bathroom.

Of course, there is always the option of carrying an empty bottle with you if you have a boy child and having the kid pee in there.

[bullyboy]

Here's what I don't get. Why is it just boys?

(Of course, where we live, it's grown men, but that's a whole different story, isn't it? At least, I'm hoping these 5 and 7 year olds aren't drunk.)

[caseopele]

Here's why we don't like to let anyone (adults or kids) use our store bathroom. First, you have to walk through our office to get to it. We keep personal belongings in the office not to mention our change box. Some of us have personal stuff in the bathroom and there are wine glasses in there. Second, adults and kids have blown our bathroom up! They've left disgusting messes that we have to clean, which is not really our job. We don't mind cleaning up after each other since we treat the store bathroom like our own. Third, there are liability issues. Fourth, there's a Starbucks 1 block away.

P.S. The worst 2 incidents were from an old man and a young girl.
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[Hamilton]

[MeredithB]

1.) you may clean up you dog's poop but you don't wipe up your dog's urine which styreams all over the sidewalk and really smells nice. So I say STFU. This is NYC. Kids need to pee. If NYC doesn't want kids peeing on tires as their fathers watched they'd put toilets on every corner. If you can't deal, move.
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[armchair_warrior]

i gotta say, i see this way too many times. i see my friends do it. i see strange males do it.

most guys do this all the time all over nyc. i'm always embarrassed by my friends :/.
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[brooklynpotter]

what did we do when we were little? because i don't recall peeing outside. ever. (except for the one time i was mad and my mother and, after dinner, went to pee in the backyard. i'd honestly never remembered that until just this minute.)
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[LongTimeSloper]

Well, BP, I could be wrong, but, I am assuming you are a girl and I never ever see girls pee outside. I guess it's just easier for boys to do it. Also, depending on your age, people when I was a kid growing up in the suburbs were much more accommodating than they are now

[brooklynpotter]

correct, i am a girl. but i have a little brother who was the poster child for ADHD, before there was such a thing, and i imagine he needed to pee all the time
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what would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.

[daver]

[jf22561]

We never ever thought about urinating outside when we were kids! If we really had to go that bad, we'd go into the nearest diner or coffee shop, or department store, buy a soda or something small which made us paying customers, and the owners were then more than happy to let us use their restroom. When we were really little and were with our parents - our parents would take us into the nearest place and buy something small so we could use the bathroom. BTW, it is a health code violation to pee in a public place and risks a ticket. I've seen parents let their kids pee in public not far from where there are portapotties (spelling?) - I think it's just a difference in how some people are raised and what they feel is acceptable behavior.

[brooklynpotter]

i do not have children, so i likely don't understand the urgency they have when they have to pee NOW. for adults, when we have to go, we can generally hold it. (i know, we are not children)... but it also get nearly impossible to hold the closer you get to that bathroom. ever notice that? ergo, if kids knew that outside peeing was *never* acceptable wouldn't they be able to hold it in longer?

perhaps their parents should have them go to pee at every location they're at during their days where peeing is ok? (home, lunch, library) so, like us, they can remember that peeing before you leave the house is important?

again, i don't have kids. i don't know how their little bodies work. it just seems to me that if kids know that it's an option it will become a need.
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what would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.

[daver]

[brooklynpotter]

[daver]

[brooklynpotter]

i think we should do a poll
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what would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.

[caseopele]

Because dogs pee outside then adults or kids should be able to do it too? It's not like dogs have any other option. My dogs can't go use the bathroom in Starbucks or Barnes and Noble. So comparing dogs and people peeing outside doesn't make much sense.
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[daver]

[BoogieKnight]

acceptable peeing in street behavior - between two parked cars.

above allowable only when the kid really really has to go, and no convenient and certain public restroom available.

the kid spraying onto a parked car from the sidewalk was wrong.

this city does suck for use of business bathrooms though. big giant chains and hotels are the only sure-fire public facilities. it doesn't even occur to me that smaller mom-pop shops will let me into theirs.

[Flexichick]

if I really need a bathroom and there are no book stores, hotels or other places to go, I will buy a soda or a water someplace just to use the loo.
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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!

[Jamzer]

[Old Time Brooklyn]

[daver]

[Jamzer]

For what it is worth - kids should not eat out of dog bowls either.

[daver]

[armchair_warrior]

in fact my working class friends last week pee between two dumpsters while i went inside a mcdonalds to pee, they finish first and laugh at me for taking so long.
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[daver]

[The Chipster]

kids peeing is somewhat harmless, not as pungent as dog pee...and as long as they're too young to "get it" big deal. When kids gotta go, they gotta go!
I can never understand why a store wouldn't let you use their bathroom, (not a liquor store! or a.99 store..) but if I'm in a clothing store, and they "don't have a bathroom", I leave.
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