[div class="head2"]Potty parity? New stadium slights women by 39 stalls[/div] [div class="byLine" align="left"]By Elizabethe Holland[/div] [div class="byLine" align="left"]ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH[/div] [div class="byLine"]03/28/2006[/div] [div class="story" align="left"] [table style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="155"] [tbody] [tr] [td style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);"][img alt="" src="vny!://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/pottywomen155x155.jpg" border="0" height="155" width="155"]
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[font class="search"]One of the women's bathrooms at the new Busch Stadium.[/font]
[font class="byLine"]([font class="byLine"]By [a class="byLine" href="mailto:
[email protected]"][font color="#000000"]Huy Richard Mach[/font][/a][/font]/P-D)[/font][/font][/td][/tr][/tbody][/table][/div][/div] [div class="story" align="left"]
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The state law . . . "A place of assembly for public amusement including, but not limited to, sports stadiums and arenas, auditoriums and assembly halls, there shall be provided an equal number of water closets for women as there are the number of water closets and urinals provided for men . . ."
The city says . . . The 1987 National Standard Plumbing Code was followed[/div] [div class="story" align="left"] [/div] [div class="story" align="left"].For the many spiffy, state-of-the-art offerings at new Busch Stadium, it appears the ballpark won't have one thing state law says it must: potty parity.
A Missouri law passed in 1995 requires that sports stadiums and other large public venues have an equal number of water closets - or toilets - for women as there are water closets and urinals for men.
But while the new stadium will have one more public restroom for women than men, male fans will have 39 more places to go to the bathroom than female fans, according to numbers provided by HOK, the architectural firm that designed the ballpark.
Potty parity laws have been pushed nationwide in recent years with the intent of clipping long lines at women's restrooms - or at least making them comparable to the typically shorter lines outside men's rooms.
Asked about the disparity at new Busch, St. Louis' acting building commissioner, Frank Oswald, said he did not know there was a potty parity law in Missouri. And city Operations Manager Ronald H. Smith - the city's building commissioner at the time the stadium plans were approved - said the city doesn't enforce the statute. Rather, he said, the building division enforces locally adopted building codes - in the stadium's case, the 1987 National Standard Plumbing Code, which the city booted last year in favor of a code that requires more restroom facilities for women than men.
"It would be very difficult to be responsible for enforcing every state law that is passed," Smith said. "There are a ton of things at the state level that we may or may not be aware of. The codes we adopt are what we are supposed to enforce."
That the potty parity law Irene Treppler fought for despite much ridicule appears to have been overlooked at the new Busch came as a big surprise this week to the former longtime state senator and representative.
"Why make laws if you're not going to abide by them?" said Treppler of south St. Louis County. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."
John Loyd, who is overseeing the construction of the stadium for the Cardinals, did not return phone calls Tuesday.
Bill Dewitt III, senior vice president with the Cardinals, said he was not aware of the issue but asserted that the number of women's facilities was far better at the new stadium than at the old.
The old stadium had 54 public restrooms while the new stadium - despite its smaller size - will have 77, according to figures provided by HOK and the Fleishmann Hillard public relations firm. In all, the new Busch will have 32 public restrooms for women, 31 for men and 14 family bathrooms. The total does not include unisex bathrooms in each of 30 suites on the field level and in 33 suites on the mezzanine level. Also not included are several bathrooms on the service level that are not open to the public.
Smith, the city operations manager, said that while the city does not enforce the state statute, it has determined that the stadium is in compliance with - "and actually exceeds" - the minimum requirements of the National Standard Plumbing Code. The code says the minimum required toilets shall be the same for each sex.
But Smith said the code also allows for up to half of the required number of fixtures for men to be urinals. Because urinals take up less space than toilets in stalls, there is more room for fixtures in men's rooms, explained Dennis Laflen, a senior vice president with HOK in St. Louis. Overall, Laflen said, the new stadium is "above and beyond" in terms of its bathroom offerings.
Figures provided by the city and HOK suggest the stadium may have some 300 toilets and urinals more than are required by the plumbing code.
Missouri isn't the only state or jurisdiction to enact a potty parity law. Illinois' Equitable Restrooms Act requires that the number of fixtures for men and women be calculated based on a venue's maximum occupancy.
Some places - New York City among them - require twice as many places for women to relieve themselves in stadiums, theaters and other venues. The reason? Studies have shown that women, because they have different needs, spend twice as much time in restrooms as men. That translates into longer lines ... and more missed innings, concert acts, etc.
Potty parity does not appear to be an issue for St. Louis' Edward Jones Dome, which also was designed by HOK and was built before the state's potty parity law went into effect. HOK Sport has built or is building 14 baseball stadiums and has renovated or is renovating an additional four.
Mary Hendron, spokeswoman for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, said the Dome has 366 fixtures specifically for men and 366 for women. The numbers do not include toilets in six family bathrooms.
The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri at St. Louis campus is less generous toward its male patrons. The facility has 45 toilets for women and 22 toilets and urinals for men, said Frank Kochin, director of facility services for UMSL.
Tammy Cavender, spokeswoman with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said the department's Human Rights Commission is in charge of investigating complaints alleging gender discrimination involving public accommodations.
She said she knows of no such complaints against Busch or any similar facilities.
Such a complaint may be what it takes to achieve what Treppler argued for more than a decade ago, the former lawmaker said.
"The women ought to have facilities as good as the men's," she said.
