Don’t Pee On Me – Urine Resistant Walls Pee Right Back On Your Shoes
Don’t pee on our city, and the city won’t pee on you. That’s the new message San Francisco is sending out to public urinators. The city just finished painting nine public city walls with urine repelling paint designed to splash pee right back on a person’s shoes if they use the wall as a bathroom.
The paint is extremely hydrophobic and will actually reflect any liquid sprayed on it. It was first designed by Nissan as a way to keep cars free from dirt. The anti-urine paint is San Francisco’s latest attempt to stop late night drinkers and the homeless from peeing on city walls and stinking up the place.
Warning signs have been posted on the city walls covered with the new paint, although they don’t explicitly say public urinators will wind up peeing on themselves.
“Hold it! This wall is not a public restroom. Please respect San Francisco and seek relief in an appropriate place.”
City officials hope the new paint will keep people from using the city as a public bathroom because nothing else seems to work.
Oh, that dude is peeing. The amount of public urination I've seen in #SanFrancisco makes me question every wet patch on the sidewalks.
— Adam Litzenberger (@LitzenUp) July 8, 2015
There’s already a $50 to $500 fine in place, free public toilets and a city program that drops off portable toilets in high volume locations. However, all that hasn’t stopped officials from receiving 375 requests from residents and business owners to steam clean public places free of human urine and feces. That’s why city officials are willing to spend a couple hundred dollars per wall to cover public areas with the Ultra Ever Dry paint made by a Florida chemical company.
They first got the idea from the city of Hamburg, Germany where officials used the paint to cover city walls in the St. Pauli red light district. The area is known for late night parties and binge drinking and locals there are tired of revelers using the area as a bathroom.
The Reeperbahn in St. Pauli’s Red Light district in Hamburg, Germany.
After all, there’s a much better use for your urine than peeing on city walls, and that’s using it to keep flowers fresh cut flowers looking new and beautiful. New research shows the best way to keep fresh cut flowers looking shiny and new is to add a bit of urine to their water. That’s because one of the major chemicals found in urine, urea, is also found in flower food.
So remember, if you’re in San Francisco or Germany, don’t pee on the walls, pee on some flowers.
Photos by Spencer Platt and Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
