My morning walk/run route often takes me along the waterfront and through downtown. This time of year, it requires a certain degree of weather tolerance, good shoes – and a strong bladder.
Trying to find a restroom in the business district off-season is like searching for something positive to say about the Patriots this season. It’s a subject that came up during my recent We Have Questions conversation with Lea Filson, CEO of the See Plymouth tourism organization.
“I’m not saying to everybody, ‘Open your bathrooms to the public,’ Filson told me, “but how welcoming is it when every single store says ‘no public restroom?’ The state won’t open its at the times you need them to open and the town won’t open the bathrooms on Russell Street [at town hall] except during certain times. That’s something we all need to address and say, OK, if we’re going to have these things, we’ve got to maintain them and operate them.”
She’s right. We’ll get to restaurants and shops, but first let’s look at the options for public facilities, according to a See Plymouth map.
The restrooms at town hall are nice, but the hours aren’t so attractive – they’re open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to noon. But the restrooms are closed on weekends – when the most people are out and about.
The foul restrooms at the rear of the 1749 Courthouse Museum recently closed. A crudely-written sign there directed those in need to the town hall facilities. Depending on the day and time, however, that could be a frustrating walk to another locked door. (The sign, by the way, disappeared shortly after I mentioned it in my conversation with Filson.)
On the waterfront, the Water Street Visitor Center closed Dec. 1 and won’t reopen until April 1.
The restrooms at the Harbormaster building near East Bay Grill are closed until April, but as of Dec. 1, a restroom across the street at Village Landing remained open during shopping hours.
The state-run restrooms at Pilgrim Memorial Park closed for the season on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The schedule is tied to that of the nearby Mayflower II, according to a park employee who did not want to be named. When the seasonal workers leave, she said, the doors are locked. That may have been OK a long time ago, but on a mild winter weekend now a fair number of people come to the waterfront. It’s not 1620 anymore. (Frank Mand wrote about this issue six years ago and, sadly, not much has changed in the interim.)
As for restaurants and bars, I understand that they don’t want a parade of non-customers coming and, uh, going, but is it really that big of an issue? And if it is, doesn’t that hammer home the point about the lack of public facilities? Besides, the way some businesses go about it sends an inhospitable message to visitors (and residents). When the first thing you see is a sign that basically says “go away,” well, you might just do that. And never come back.
One particularly blatant example: Main Street Marketplace. Its sign not only says that the antiques business doesn’t have a restroom open to the public, it actually suggests that people walk across the street to the Yellow Deli. I tried to find out what the intent of that sign is, but Main Street Marketplace didn’t respond to my request for comment.
I worked in downtown Boston for years and hardly ever saw such off-putting messages on storefronts. What is it about Plymouth that makes bodily functions such a problem? How are businesses in a major city able to deal with people seeking to relieve themselves while much smaller Plymouth cannot cope?
To be fair, not all downtown and waterfront establishments resort to “no public bathrooms” signs, and one that does – the high-end Mallebar Brasserie – gets a pass because it has to deal with a persistent loitering problem outside the adjacent 7-Eleven.
If I’ve missed a public business district toilet or urinal here, I’m happy to stand corrected. Or be sitting-down corrected, depending on your position regarding such matters.
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org.