Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human

Public Restrooms and the Decline of the Common Good

The high and lows of the common good in the United States are illustrated in the story of its public restrooms. In the early 1900s, American cities acknowledged the need for public toilets and started building facilities that were clean, comfortable and conveniently located. By 1940 there were restrooms in all of New York City's 1500 parks. The subway had 1,676 toilets and conducted regular inspections.

Today there are a mere 78 public restrooms in 468 subway stations. Sometime after mid century, the public restrooms of the nation's cities started into steep decline. Portland, Oregon was no exception.

Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human (PHLUSH)

Since 2006 Steel Bridge has contributed time and resources to PHLUSH , which works with community members and city officials to bring clean, safe, comfortable public toilets to Portland’s Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. PHLUSH is a project of the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association, which brings together the people who live, work and own property in the oldest and most diverse of the city’s 95 neighborhoods.

Download the PHLUSH brochure, which summarizes the benefits of restrooms to urban livability and suggests ways Portlanders can take action.

In February 2006, PHLUSH, for Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human, released Public Toilets for Old Town Chinatown: A Report to the Community.

Relief Works, an urban planning team at Portland State University, immediately took up the challenge of building on the PHLUSH report. Four months later, Relief Works recommended formal policy and practice Going Public! Strategies for Meeting Public Restroom Need in Portland’s Central City. Adopted by the Office of the Mayor, the document currently guides a new city program to increase the number of public restrooms.

Since its founding PHLUSH has worked with national and international partners. For details see Tools.