Do not let Starbucks take away our public toilet

American cities are particularly lacking public toilets, and rather than deal with that directly, lawmakers have been content to let Starbucks and other chains take on the duty. (Yes, I said duty.)

New York’s former mayor Michael Bloomberg famously deflected public pressure to address the restroom issue 20 years ago, quipping that “there’s enough Starbucks that’ll let you use the bathroom.” (Then he proceeded to tackle the real scourge of Gotham known as Big Soda… but that’s a rant for another day.)

It’s been an imperfect solution, at best, but it’s about to get a lot more complicated.

Here’s the deal: Starbucks is done being a public toilet.

The company’s interim CEO Howard Schultz recently said its stores may have to re-evaluate the policy that lets anyone, customer or not, use the bathroom. My colleagues Nathaniel Meyersohn and Danielle Wiener-Bronner have the full story here.

Schultz said he is worried about safety, and while he didn’t reverse the policy outright, he seems to…

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