Posts by Phlush
How PHLUSH Began
For decades the lack of public restrooms had been a problem for business owners, employees, residents, and visitors in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown district. Located at the heart of the city, this is the place where Portland began. It was home to the historic skid road of a timber-dominated economy driven by workers from Oregon…
Read MoreWashington DC activists look to PHLUSH Advocacy
Today brings an interesting post on the lack of public restrooms in Washington DC by blogger Lynda Laughlin, a sociologist whose day job is a family demographer with the US Census Bureau. Citing PHLUSH efforts in Portland, Laughlin says Advocating for more public restrooms can be tricky. People are often too embarrassed to…
Read MoreDocumentary "People Can't Wait" now available on line!
Interviewed about the shortage of public restrooms in downtown Portland and the resulting inconvenience, PHLUSH Co-Founder Tom Carrollo notes that “people can’t wait”. This axiom provided the title of a short documentary on the Portland Loo, which premiered to a full house at the Hollywood Theater on Wednesday night. People Can’t Wait from shieldsfilms.com…
Read MorePHLUSH honors Toilet Innovators, Hero and Champion
The people who’ve helped bring great public toilets to Portland’s Old Town Chinatown were honored at a lively and well-attended celebration at Orchid Salon on March 24th. After everyone had been welcomed by PHLUSH Co-Founder Tom Carrollo, Nancy Stovall, Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association Vice-Chair, presented a special PHLUSH Innovation Award recognizing the Portland Loo team as…
Read MoreNew Documentary "People Can't Wait" features PHLUSH
A recent documentary on the innovative new Portland Loo features an interview with PHLUSH Co-Founder Tom Carrollo. “People Can’t Wait” will be screened on Wed, April 8 at 7pm the Hollywood Theatre. Tickets will be on sale at the door Old Town Chinatown-based filmmaker Travis Shields of ShieldsFilms produced the short as part of the…
Read MoreBill in Oregon Senate on access to toilets
A bill introduced this month the Oregon Senate would ensure restroom access in commercial establishments to a select group of people. Senate Bill 706 would require that places of public accommodation allow customer access to employee toilet facilities if customer has certain medical conditions. It specifies exceptions and punishes violation of requirement by maximum fine of…
Read MorePHLUSH Awards Celebration on March 24th!
Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human (PHLUSH) will announce the PHLUSH Public Restroom Awards at a celebration on March 24. The awards honor those whose efforts have increased public restroom availability in Portland. The event will be held from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at Orchid Salon, 203 NW Second Ave. Everyone is invited…
Read MoreHillary Clinton visits public toilets at Mercy Corps site in Indonesia
On Thursday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited a public toilet complex in the Petojo residential area in central Jakarta near where Obama lived as a boy. The best part of this is that Portland-based Mercy Corps is a part of this USAID-funded project. It’s great to see USAID finally using our tax dollars…
Read MoreUrban Restroom Design
This an appeal to urban planners to pay more attention to ways public restrooms enhance urban livability and to architects and engineers to rethink toilet design. Toilet availability plays a key role in urban livability. Planning for restrooms in public areas has not, however, received the attention it deserves and has resulted in a public…
Read MoreMeeting at Floyd’s Coffee Shop
Here we are all learning to blog!
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