"JCDeaux basically invented the idea of Street furniture"

That is a fairly strong claim on the surface and the company's website has a slightly different one:

"In 1964, Jean-Claude Decaux invented advertising street furniture."

Such a fundamental mistake in the opening paragraph. Made me realize I could not trust whatever was written afterwards.

Public restrooms are a sign of advanced civilizations. It's a pity that they have to be built to withstand damage from hooligans.

As an occasional visitor to Paris, I was quite astonished at how nice at least the central parts of the city have become under the 12-year tenure of Mayor Hidalgo (admittedly with the help of gobs of public funding for the Olympics). It's so much more green, clean, and biking/pedestrian friendly than it used to be.

I gather locals who drive are in violent disagreement with me on this, and Paris is a big place that extends well beyond the posh touristy arrondissements, but it's still remarkable -- especially given that the downtowns of most American big cities have gone downhill in the same time period.

JCDecaux famously charges everyone outside of France exorbitantly while charging nothing to Paris. For example, Paris pays as much (€6M/yr in 2006) for maintenance on its 420 sanisettes as SF does for its 24 ($13M/yr in 2022). You cannot seriously criticize LA for looking for alternatives. Even Berlin, after paying JCDecaux €250M to build a few hundred, realized that paying businesses to keep their bathrooms public and clean is simpler.

I don't really understand why the author is dumping on LA's toilets so much while praising how Parisian toilets are so useful for everyday people like commuters. The LA Metro program, which is expanding and seems to be very successful, has very different goals and challenges than the skid row public bathrooms.