Stories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness

July 1, 2013 Students from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Affairs and Planning, have recently completed a project on the consequences of toiletlessness. After spending the winter academic term on background and planning, the Right to Relief team spent the spring term exploring the issues in collaboration with PHLUSH.  They hit…

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New PHLUSH exhibit premiers at National VOAD Conference

This week the Portland Hilton is buzzing with the energy of hundreds of impassioned volunteers and salaried colleagues who manage the nation’s most important disaster response agencies. It’s the annual conference of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster a coalition of hundreds of organizations – faith-based, community-based, and other non-governmental organizations – and 55  VOADs…

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The Case for Pay Toilets

An opinion piece on pay toilets by Abby Brown of the Water for the Ages blog. A recent trip to Europe made me question the American way of feeling entitled to pee for free. After helping local sanitation group PHLUSH with two great summer events, I traveled out of the country with my partner while…

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Come Meet Mr. Toilet in Portland, Oregon

PHLUSH will host World Toilet Organization Founder Jack Sim on Sunday, June 3 and Monday, June 4. Jack is an international media celebrity and inspiring advocate for human dignity. He put the spotlight on the 2.6 billion humans who lack toilets and helped get the UN to include sanitation in Millennium Development Goals. Jack was…

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Time for Portland Parks to take toilets seriously

The cost-cutting recommendations of Portland Parks and Recreation’s Budget Advisory Committee call for 189 toilet closures    The proposal is for Parks to replace half the number of closed stalls with plastic portables while laying off the Parks Technicians who understand the social environment and perform many other duties besides cleaning restrooms and hauling away trash. (UPDATE: PP&R’s official…

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A neighbor speaks out.

It  was good to hear from an Old Town neighbor, even one who is understandably distressed.   But public urination is distressing, and especially now that we have toilets at more or less at 1000 foot intervals throughout the hood.   There is a concern we have that I would like to address. We have…

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phlush.org is under construction! Launch is March 24!

Excuse our mess. phlush.org is under construction. We thought about doing this messy work out of view. But we know this: Everybody is smarter than anybody. So why not help us out by emailing suggestions or commenting below? The purpose of phlush.org is to bring together practical resources on public restroom design and management and…

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