“Washrooms for Customers Only”: Space, Dignity, and Sh*tting in the City by Edith Wilson A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Edith Wilson, January, 2019 ABSTRACT “WASHROOMS FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY”: SPACE, DIGNITY, AND SH*TTING IN THE CITY Edith Wilson Advisor(s): University of Guelph, 2019 Dr. Mervyn Horgan This thesis examines the narratives that explain the existence of washrooms for customers only (W4CO) rules in the City of Toronto. Fifteen interviews were conducted with workers and managers at both chain and independent fast food and coffee shops along five strips in Toronto’s downtown core. In addition, a full listing of the public washrooms already available in the city was assembled, since no previous complete list existed. Descriptive statistics gathered show that 37.62% of the businesses in the research area have W4CO signs. Findings also show that although W4CO signs are much less frequent in independent shops, independent shops also have many fewer washroom uses per hour than chain shops. Findings from interviews show that the high prevalence of homelessness and the intersection of homelessness with mental health issues and drug addiction were concerns for workers. However, most interviewees were interested in polic y solutions and tried to separate their often difficult experiences with the washrooms in businesses from discourse that stigmatizes vulnerable populations. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, many thanks to the anonymous heroes of this project. I will always be grateful to the interviewees that took time out of long and stressful workdays, even sometimes days off, to talk to me. I sincerely enjoyed speaking with each one of you, and I hope that this research can contribute in some small way to making your workday easier. I wouldn’t have been able to produce this thesis without Prof. Horgan’s unflappable patience and commitment to academic excellence. I was frequently absent or having thoughts that were completely unrelated to this work (why does our society care enough about a graveyard to build the highway around it?; how long will collective bargaining really go on for?; do anarchist theorists and Durkheim have anything in common?), but his willingness to put up with me made it possible for this research to take shape. I’m immensely grateful. Thanks very much also to Prof. Tony Winson, my second reader. I will fondly remember the long conversations we had about all sorts of topics. Thanks to him for his kind encouragement of my work, both in the department and in my other projects. Thanks to Prof. Kate Parizeau for her interest in my thesis project and her willingness to sit on my committee as external examiner. Her thorough feedback was invaluable in strengthening the final version of this work. Thanks very much to the educators throughout my life who have believed in me – they laid the foundation that this rests on, especially Prof. Philip Walsh. iv Thanks to Shelagh, who never got frustrated when she had to tell me (for the millionth time) that the courses to register each semester are UNIV…7500? 7200? Sorry Shelagh, I forgot…Thanks for your patience and your kindness. Mom and Dad, I couldn’t have done it without you. See, I did finish my thesis! Sam, thanks for being there for me to bounce ideas off of and for being the best brother a sister could ever have. Finally, thanks to my wonderful friends, both in school and out of it, who supported me in this venture and didn’t laugh (well, maybe you laughed a little) when I told you I was writing a hundred-page paper on washrooms. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research Context: A Brief History of Funding for Public Washrooms........................... 2 1.2 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................... 7 2 Literature Review.................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Public Washrooms/Private Washrooms ........................................................................... 9 2.2 Whose Public Space?: Public Space and Stigma ........................................................... 14 2.3 Stigma............................................................................................................................. 16 2.4 The Right to the City ...................................................................................................... 21 2.5 Worker’s Rights and the Service Industry ..................................................................... 24 2.6 Chapter Summary........................................................................................................... 28 3 Methods................................................................................................................................. 29 3.1 Gathering Publicly-Available Information..................................................................... 30 3.2 Descriptive Statistics ...................................................................................................... 32 3.3 Unobtrusive Observation................................................................................................ 35 3.4 Semi-structured Interviews ............................................................................................ 38 4 Findings................................................................................................................................. 46 4.1 Publicly Available Data: How many public washrooms are already in Toronto? ......... 47 4.2 Quantitative Findings ..................................................................................................... 49 4.2.1 How common are W4CO rules? ............................................................................. 49 4.2.2 Who is using the washroom, and how much?......................................................... 54 4.3 Qualitative observations ................................................................................................. 61 4.3.1 Why W4CO?........................................................................................................... 62 4.3.2 Drug use in washrooms........................................................................................... 63 4.3.4 Safety concerns, violence, and health crises in the workplace ............................... 70 4.3.5 The police and workplace safety............................................................................. 74 4.3.6 No W4CO: Social justice and the safe neighborhood ............................................ 76 vi 4.3.7 No W4CO: Social justice and the third place ......................................................... 80 4.4 Chapter Summary........................................................................................................... 84 5 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 85 5.1 Introduction: The Right to the City ................................................................................ 85 5.2 Stigma and the W4CO Narrative ................................................................................... 89 5.3 Provision of resources for addictions and mental health: Why do workers deal with needles in the washrooms?........................................................................................................ 94 5.4 Social Distance, Working Conditions, and the Third Place ......................................... 101 5.5 Policy Suggestions ....................................................................................................... 104 6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 109 6.1 Limitations ................................................................................................................... 111 6.2 Contributions ................................................................................................................ 115 References ................................................................................................................................... 117 Appendices.................................................................................................................................. 129 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Coffee Shops and Fast Food Restaurants Visited ........................................................... 34 Table 2: Number of W4CO in corporate/chain shops .................................................................. 50 Table 3: Number of W4CO in independent shops .......................................................................