Letters to the Editor: Blame government if Starbucks decides to close its bathrooms

To the editor: That Starbucks may soon allow only patrons to use its bathrooms is not a knock on Starbucks. Rather, this action would be a direct response to the failure of city agencies to do their job in serving the marginalized population. ("Public bathrooms are a basic human right, but many cities aren’t even trying to meet the need," Opinion, July 11)

Starbucks serves coffee to paying customers, and this results in job opportunities, community engagement and a successful business enterprise.

Bloated city agencies tasked with responding to the needs of the general public are not doing their job if homeless people have nowhere to "do their business." Let’s not blur the lines on responsibility.

Thanks to Starbucks for providing clean and safe bathrooms for its customers. Now, local governments need to do their job and provide shelters with bathrooms for homeless people.

Cindy Simon, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: My wife and I just returned from a fantastic two-week exploration of Iceland, so I couldn’t help but take notice of Catarina de Albuquerque's citing of Iceland as having the most public bathrooms per capita in the world. As the population of Iceland is less than 377,000, this means there are around 210 public restrooms for a country roughly equivalent in land area to Ohio.

Fortunately, theses facilities are strategically placed for use by the 2 million tourists who now visit Iceland every year. I can't recall seeing evidence of homelessness anywhere in Iceland.

So while I totally agree with the the writer's concern about lack of facilities that maintain basic human dignity for all segments of society, her citation of Iceland's public restrooms is a perfect example of how some statistics can be accurate yet still irrelevant.

Richard Candib, Valencia

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.