S.F.’s new urine-resistant walls seem to be keeping things dry

Wayne Howard stands in the corner by a wall that has been coated with pee-repelling paint at the 16th and Mission Street Bart Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, July 30, 2015. Wayne Howard stands in the corner by a wall that has been coated with pee-repelling paint at the 16th and Mission Street Bart Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, July 30, 2015. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close S.F.’s new urine-resistant walls seem to be keeping things dry 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

The city’s famous new pee walls seem to be doing their job.

Thursday night at 16th and Mission, where the weekend starts early, action at the wall was shockingly calm. People flooded out of the BART station at regular intervals, loudly chatting and laughing. A half-dozen homeless people settled into their nooks and crannies for the night. And the wall — it stayed relatively dry.

“We have been sending crews out every day to see if there is a urine smell or if they see wet on the walls,” San Francisco Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said. “So far, so good. Our crews haven’t smelled the stench of urine in our hot-spot areas as much.”

Last week, Public Works crews finished painting nine city walls with urine-repellent paint. At a molecular level, the coating creates a surface texture with geometric shapes with peaks, or high points, that repel most water-based and some oil-based liquid.

Splashing back

That means the painted surfaces will spray urine right back at the shoes and pants of unsuspecting relief-seekers. It has proved to be effective in Europe. It was applied to walls in Hamburg’s St. Pauli quarter, where drinkers apparently often can’t be bothered to find a restroom. Much like in San Francisco.

“I am not prepared to say 100 percent that there haven’t been people peeing at these locations,” Gordon said. “They also could be relieving themselves nearby. It’s gotten a pretty good community reaction. We’ve had dozens of calls from other property owners and city agencies who want to put the coating on their properties.”

The pee walls are the city’s latest attempt to clean up urine-soaked alleyways and walls. Public Works has received 375 steam cleaning requests since January.

“It always smells like urine out here, but it doesn’t seem as bad as it was last week,” Danielle Farmer said to her friend Kent Deverell as they exited the 24th Street BART Station. Neither of the Oakland residents had heard about the pee-repellent wall.

“I kind of want to pee on it and see what happens now,” Deverell said, examining the warning sign, which doesn’t explicitly state that the wall will fire back. “I think maybe if the sign said something about urine splashing back, it would be more effective. I had no clue.”

‘No other options’

Wayne Howard, a homeless man who lives in the area, was possibly the wall’s only patron of the night. He stood in a corner facing it for about 30 seconds, then turned around. It seemed like he was answering nature’s call, but he adamantly denied it.

“I didn’t do it, but people do all the time,” he said. “They close the bathrooms at night, so there are no other options. You could go to a taqueria, but then you would have to pay money to eat something first. Everybody uses the wall.”

Howard was talking about the city’s Pit Stop program, which provides public restrooms, has contributed to a 17 percent drop in steam cleaning requests since last summer. But those restrooms close at night, leaving late-night revelers and indigents few options.

Some passersby doubted how effective the paint would be at combatting the city’s public urination problem. Legislation banned it in 2002 but with little success, despite a $50 to $500 fine.

“It’s a cool idea for unsuspecting people, but I think they will definitely learn and just go pee somewhere else or pee at an angle,” said Chuck Galang, who lives in Chinatown. “I always see them doing it behind cars, and it’s not like you can paint every vehicle. They also probably won’t care that much if they are drunk.”

Larger problem remains

Isaac Amala of Berkeley, who wheels his bike past the wall on his way to a bus stop most days, said the wall doesn’t seem like a good idea.

“Whether it’s effective is one thing, and whether it’s right is another,” he said. “I think it’s treating a symptom and not thinking about what the problem is. It seems like this is just putting a Band-Aid on an issue that could be treated in a much more compassionate way.”

And whether the city’s pee walls stay clean? Only time will tell.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @lizziejohnsonnn