Judge tosses suit claiming San Francisco's open-air pissoir violates privacy rights
Mission Dolores Park.
A superior court judge in San Francisco has tossed a lawsuit that claimed an open-air pissoir in a city park was a public nuisance that violated the right to privacy.
Judge Harold Kahn dismissed the case in a Sept. 30 order (PDF) that found the pissoir in Mission Dolores Park did not violate constitutional provisions, statutes or common law, report the San Francisco Chronicle and Courthouse News Service.
The open-air urinal—dubbed a pPod by the city—is a drain in the ground that is half encircled by a fence, tarp and flowers, the Chronicle explains. Photos of the structure can be seen in the Chronicle’s article.
The suit (PDF) filed by the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union in April had claimed the open-air urinal does not comply with plumbing codes, is inaccessible to people with disabilities, discriminates against women because it is exclusively for males; is a public nuisance; violates the city’s indecency law; violates public health policy because it has no running water for washing hands; and violates the right to privacy of those who had to use the facilities and those who happened to observe the users.
