Public urination may be punished with a $500 fine
May 2, 2002
BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND FRAN SPIELMAN STAFF REPORTERS
Chicago Cubs fans who load up on beer, straggle out of the game and relieve themselves in an alley or someone's front yard would pay dearly--with an automatic $500 fine--under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the local alderman.
The new public urination ordinance proposed by Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) would be enforced citywide, but would attack one of the main issues standing in the way of Wrigley Field expansion--that 2,000 more ticket holders will bring more public urination to East Lake View.
"One of the identified largest problems with the quality of life in our area has been the second most popular sport, and that's peeing in public,'' said Charlotte Newfeld, chair of Citizens United for Baseball and Sunshine and a board member of the Lakeview Citizens Council. Last December, the Council's board of directors declared public urination the area's second-most pressing issue, right behind parking, Newfeld said.
Wrigleyville resident Charles Holzner was so aggravated by the problem that several years ago he started videotaping public urinators behind his home, in the 3500 block of North Sheffield. He said he discovered 20 to 30 percent of the offenders were women.
"They just pull down their pants and think nothing of it,'' Holzner said. "But they are drunk, what do you expect?''
Holzner called the proposed ordinance a "step in the right direction,'' and said large signs in alleys announcing the fine would make people "think twice'' before using alleys as open-air toilets.
But Newfeld and others said Hansen's idea didn't go far enough or attack the root of the problem. Newfeld questioned how thoroughly such an ordinance would be enforced. Both Newfeld and Jim Murphy, owner of Murphy's Bleachers and president of East Lakeview Neighbors, said the area clearly needs more public restrooms.
Murphy cited the public stainless steel toilets used in Paris for $1 a customer that self-clean after every use, so consumers know they are walking into a sanitary facility.
"It seems there's a better solution to it,'' said Murphy, who puts six to eight portable toilets behind Murphy's Bleachers to accommodate Cubs fans. "The fine seems a bit steep, that's for sure ... I don't know if a $500 fine will resolve the matter.''
The municipal code includes no specific reference to public urination. Arrests are typically made under the disorderly conduct ordinance or the public nudity section. Fines for the two offenses range from $5 to $500, with offenders typically fined only $25, said Jennifer Hoyle, city Law Department spokeswoman.
As a result, Hansen said, if violators get a good lawyer, they come to court and say, "It wasn't indecent exposure. It was an emergency, judge. I had to relieve myself.''
"I want to take away the ability to confuse the court about what these people are really doing,'' Hansen said. "I want it defined in such a way that there's no escape from reality.''
The $500 fine would make clear "our neighborhood is not a washroom,'' Hansen said.
The Tribune Co., which owns the Cubs, has proposed expanding Wrigley Field by 2,000 seats, but the idea has been stalled by opposition to the impact on the neighborhood, including fear of increased public urination. In response, the Tribune Co. has promised to eliminate all 13 Friday 2:20 p.m. starts, create a neighborhood watch program using Cubs personnel with radios, install portable toilets at Cubs parking lots owned by the Tribune, and build an exterior entrance to washrooms in a 400-space parking garage to be constructed next to Wrigley Field.
None of that has satisfied the community.
Newfeld said offenders should be arrested, not merely cited. Otherwise, she said, if they are from outside the area they can just get back on their "charter bus'' and ignore the fine.
The Lakeview Citizens Council has recommended a series of solutions, including a $250 fine, requiring that any parking lot with 50 cars have at least one portable toilet, and establishing fines for failing to clean and maintain portable toilets.
"If we're going to let everybody pour all the liquid in, it's going to come out,'' Newfeld said. "I would prefer we have a tasteful solution to the problem by doing public washrooms.''