LEWISTON — When you’ve got to go, as they say, you’ve got to go.

Lewiston City Councilor Scott Harriman speaks at a Lewiston City Council meeting Oct. 17, 2023. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Debate over plans to install public toilets in Lewiston took a weird turn Thursday when City Council President Scott Harriman admitted that he too has relieved himself in public places from time to time.
“I’ve gone to the bathroom several times in our parking garages and alleys,” he wrote on the Sun Journal Facebook page, “because there was no other option.”
The reaction from others involved in the debate was immediate.
“Wait,” another Facebooker demanded, “you’re pooping and urinating in the parking garage and in alley ways?”
“Just pee,” Harriman clarified. “What else does one do when there is no restroom available?”
Some folks were aghast.
“Do you know how plagues start?” a Monmouth man weighed in. “Because that’s how plagues start.”
But Harriman was adamant: his confession was meant to illustrate the need for public toilets in the downtown area. Nobody, he said, wants to have to pee in a garage or alley.
“I never knew how many people have apparently made it through decades of existence without ever once peeing outside,” Harriman said later in the day. “May they continue to be blessed with a young person’s bladder for the rest of their lives. Not all of us are as fortunate.”
Reached for comment about Harriman’s admission, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline sighed wearily and did not appear surprised.
“We need public bathrooms,” was his only comment. “My position has not changed on that.”
A few wondered if Harriman realized that what he had admitted is technically a crime — a person caught relieving himself in a public place can be charged with indecent conduct.
Others pointed out that when someone goes to the bathroom in a public place, the mess needs to be cleaned up, either by a city worker or by a person whose vehicle was caught in the line of fire.
But Harriman added that urinating in a parking garage is somewhat private. With no bathrooms currently in position, some folks have taken more extreme measures when nature calls.
“It’s clear that not everyone has the same level of discretion,” he said, “given the complaints I’ve fielded from downtown businesses dealing with feces just outside their back door or urine in their entryway. I’m glad that all of Lewiston’s residents and visitors will soon have the opportunity to relieve themselves with dignity instead of making do with whatever location they’re able to find.”
Shortly after Harriman’s strange admission, the Facebook group went back to the debate, which centered on the plan by Lewiston city leaders to have public toilets installed in various locations.
The aim of the plan, in part, is to give homeless people a place to go to the bathroom so they don’t do their business in parking garages and in other public areas.
The seven permanent restrooms, to be placed in locations across the city, are also seen as an amenity for visitors. City staff has previously met with officials in Portland, which has installed the same bathroom units and has deemed them a success.
The Harriman confession was shocking to some, but many saw the point he was trying to make. The bathrooms are needed, they insist, so that nobody has to do his or her business in the parking garage anymore.
“This is a huge benefit to the whole community,” said Megan Parks, a longtime homeless advocate. “In Portland and in most metropolitan areas across the country, public restrooms in parks and on streets are a completely normal thing. They are used by all members of the public, not exclusively homeless folks, and municipal staff clean and maintain them. This is a normal occurrence.
“The local perception that these are for the unhoused only,” Park said, “and that they will be vandalized is such a hateful, stigma-driven and honestly ignorant belief. People need to get out of Lewiston more and experience life in other areas.”
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