Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

Mayor: Urinal ‘invention of genius’

- Washington Post

In the City of Light, love and romance, it is now possible to take in a sweeping, flower-filled scene of the River Seine and the historic Notre Dame Cathedral — all while emptying one’s bladder in a totally legal, even environmen­tally friendly way.

Parisian leaders are trying to tackle a problem that is evident to anyone who’s ever tried to catch a glimpse of a historic site in a historic city and instead caught a foulsmelli­ng whiff of stale urine.

Meet the uritrottoi­r, a portmantea­u of the French words for “urinal” and “sidewalk.” It is a bright red, free-standing dry urinal that’s meant to give people — well, some people — a place to go other than a cobbleston­e street or scenic bridge. The uritrottoi­rs are filled with straw, allegedly odorless, and use the nitrogen and other compounds in urine to produce an organic compost. But disgusted people who live in the city’s northern neighborho­ods have pointed out one big negative to the trial run of the device: The uritrottoi­rs’ design doesn’t prevent the rest of Paris — including some people cruising along on tourists barges — from seeing someone relieving himself.

On the other hand, flowers grow out of the top. Paris Mayor Ariel Weil has called it “une invention de genie,” “an invention of genius” that can solve a problem that persists in cities like Paris, at least until it rains.

“If we don’t do anything, then men are just going to pee in the streets,” Weil told Reuters. But residents of the upscale and historic neighborho­ods that are dotted with the red urine bins say there has to be a better, less unseemly way. “There’s no need to put something so immodest and ugly in such a historic spot,” Paola Pellizzari, who owns a nearby art dealership, told Reuters news agency.

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