A Straight Flush

Everybody knows that many women take longer in the bathroom than many men. And everybody knows that women have been shortchanged in the number of bathrooms in public places for years. Those realities — and the real need for more private, unisex bathrooms for families with small children — inspired a little noticed ten-year old state law requiring the number of women’s toilets in a public place to be equal to the number of men’s toilets and urinals.

The law is pretty good-natured about the whole thing. There is no enforcement mechanism and there are no penalties. But, it recognizes some basic facts of life.

A story in today’s daily newspaper notes that while the new ballpark has one more bathroom for women than for men, the men’s rooms have more plumbing fixtures, because the team’s architect replaced quite a few toilets in the men’s rooms with smaller urinals.

This, claims the newspaper, may violate the law.

So, what’s the bottom line about bathrooms at the new ballpark?

There will be plenty of them for both men and women. There will be family restrooms to accommodate parents with young children. The ballpark already meets and greatly exceeds the City’s building code on this subject. But, unless the team takes the absurd step of removing a few extra urinals, nature and architecture will conspire to give men a slight edge in the matter of potty parity.