Anyone urinating on the specially treated walls will get the spray splashed back on to them

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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San Francisco is testing urine repellent-paint on walls in areas that get a regular soaking. Anyone urinating on the specially treated walls will get the spray splashed back onto them.



Its director of public works, Mohammed Nuru – whose Twitter handle is @MrCleanSF – got the idea when he read on social media about the use of the paint in Hamburg, Germany’s nightclub district to stop beer drinkers from relieving themselves in the street.

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The paint, called Ultra-Ever Dry, is sold by Ultratech International Inc and is billed as a superhydrophobic coating that will repel most liquids.

Rachel Gordon, a public works department spokeswoman, said: “The urine will bounce back on the guy’s pants and shoes. The idea is they will think twice next time about urinating in public.”

She said the super-hard coating made the “bounce back” effect much stronger than when peeing on a regular wall.

Mohammed Nuru (@MrCleanSF) Use a pit stop instead of walls, bus stops and sidewalks or you may be surprised by the anti-wee paint http://t.co/nxZNRHwhjt

In a pilot program, San Francisco last week painted nine walls in areas around bars and other areas with big homeless populations.

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“Hold it! ... seek relief in an appropriate place,” say signs posted near the paint. The signs are in English, Chinese and Spanish.

The paint went up just last week, but the city is already getting requests for more.

“We’ve gotten many, many calls from people who wanted it done in their alley or on their buildings,” Gordon said. “Some people are saying it’s just a gimmick, but other people hope it will combat some of the smelly areas of San Francisco that have been saturated with urine.”

The cost of painting the walls is much lower than sending out workers to steam clean areas, she said. The city gets hundreds of requests a year to clean up urine.



The city has also added public toilets to reduce the urine problem, Gordon said.