Ann Wason Moore: Public bathrooms the key to revitalising ‘rock bottom’ Surfers Paradise
Bulletin readers have called for live music, water features, and more greenery - now a business leader has revealed the real way Surfers Paradise can be dragged back from “rock bottom”.
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LOOKING for the secret to put the Paradise back into Surfers?
Turns out it’s a piece of piss. Literally.
While Bulletin readers have offered fantastic suggestions to revitalise the Glitter Strip - from water features to greenery to live music - business owner and president of the newly formed Surfers Paradise Traders Association, Elvio Pugliese, says it’s as simple as (number) one and two.
Mr Pugliese says the atmosphere and especially the aroma of our city heart is down the toilet … because we literally don’t have a pot to piss in.
Instead, he says, it’s the side of the Hilton that’s become a disgustingly public dumping ground.
Despite Orchid Avenue being ground zero for those who are boozed up and busting for the bathroom, there is not one public facility along the nightclub stretch.
And so, just as alcohol raises the need for urination, so too does it lower inhibitions - along with trousers as revellers relieve themselves.
I’m pretty sure these were not the water features our readers were suggesting for Surfers.
But there’s no doubt that this wee problem is big-time pissing off tourists, residents and business owners alike.
“Here we have the Hilton undergoing this big renovation, but it’s being ruined by the constant stink on Orchid Ave,” says Mr Pugliese.
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“Every morning it gets hosed down, and people are urinating right in front of CCTV cameras, but nobody cares and nobody acts.
“We all know something needs to be done to make Surfers better, and this is so simple I just don’t understand why we can’t create more public toilets.
“If you talk about atmosphere and first impressions, nothing is worse than feeling like you’re walking through a giant urinal.”
Sadly, it’s not like this is a new problem.
Five years ago the council applied pee-repelling paint to places popular amongst the splash and dash crowd, and before that the council installed portable, open-air urinals, which local Cr Lex Bell later admitted were a PR disaster.
Regardless, while they weren’t number one in terms of our city’s reputation, they did collect a revolting 600 litres of urine every night.
More recently, there was an open-air pop-up urinal outside Sin City nightclub which operated between 11pm and 5am, but Mr Pugliese says it hasn’t popped up in a long time. And even when it did, it wasn’t enough to stem the flow.
“It’s not just partygoers but the homeless, whose numbers have grown. We can’t ignore that they are here and they need bathrooms too.
“You know, we police the number of car parks available in new developments, why not public bathrooms?
“There were meant to be facilities available in The Forum on Orchid Ave as part of their council approval, but I don’t think anyone has ever seen them - let alone used them.
“I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to fix something so simple.”
Mr Pugliese says he’s spoken to a number of businesses on the street, but there was a lack of unity amongst traders.
He says that’s part of the reason he decided to create the Surfers Paradise Traders Association, which had 112 members join in the first month.
The group has also called for the enforcement of bans or limits on organised pub crawls.
“I’ve spoken to many businesses on this strip but there’s no move to solve this bathroom problem together, everyone is looking after their own area - we need to work together to make the street and the suburb better for everyone.
“I want to see us all trying to lift the tone of Surfers.
“We’ve really done ourselves a disservice by pursuing the pub crawl crowd, that’s not what people want.
“Even for young people, the days of wanting to just get wasted are over, progressive cities are not chasing that market.
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“As soon as you have crowds of drunks carousing through the streets, you lose literally everyone else. People can still go to nightclubs, but that shouldn’t be the only thing we offer. And if we lose the pub crawlers, we lose a lot of the public pissers.
“We want people coming here to go out for dinner and go to the markets with their families and friends. That’s a market that’s unlimited and long-lasting.”
And best of all, they’re not urinating in the streets.
It’s a wee-wee win-win.
Originally published as Ann Wason Moore: Public bathrooms the key to revitalising ‘rock bottom’ Surfers Paradise