You see, New London is an old whaling city that honored its heritage with a lovely whale-themed fountain. The fountain showered water down on anyone willing to run underneath it on a hot summer’s day. The town expected the fountain to become a play place for children, but, instead, it turned into a watering hole for vagrants.
According to complaints, a group of unsavoury people have been using the Whale Tail to shower and relieve themselves. The urination has gotten so bad that the city has closed the fountain indefinitely. It will keep it closed until they figure out a way to keep the good people in and the bad people out. Maybe they should install some of these hooks nearby and hire this guy to watch the recorded footage..[CT Post]
Slight
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 12:26 PMPerhaps offer a public toilet and shower facility nearby?
ozoneocean
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 1:49 PMMy thoughts exactly! -Give the homeless people some facilities to use!
ozoneocean
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 1:53 PMIt reminds me of Duchamp’s “the Fountain”… which was a urinal.
attila
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 12:49 PMThose crazy hobos!
Its a pretty cool public fountain actually.
Nodeity
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 1:36 PMHoly crap, did Connecticut sell New London to a third world country!! Are there actually public toilets close by? Or are these people just pigs??
skadeet
Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 6:14 AMThey’re just pigs
Steve
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 6:20 PMMaybe they should fix the hobo sanitation problem instead of simply removing the fountain altogether. Sydney has plenty of these waterworks things around the city and none of them (that I know of) has become a hobo urinal.
rosco
Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 9:18 AMactually as a local by and large I’m not surprised. but what do you expect? connecticut has the largest disparity between the rich and the poor throughout the entire US. we pride ourselves on heritage and history (whaling… off of stolen land no less) but we forget that there are residents of new london that are in fact homeless and with few resources at their disposal. there are no publics toilets that arent locked after dark (along the pier, next to a small police precinct)… a guy takes a dump in a public fountain but does anyone raise an eyebrow when amtrak officials (a federally subsidized corporate transit powerhouse) prevent the homeless from using their toilets immediately across the street…? that taxi you see there in the background is waiting in front of the train station! “a play place for children”… gimme a f#ckin break. in the middle of busy traffic circle. whatever. maybe the residents of new london need to ask themselves why these “pigs” are relieving themselves in public because I, for one, would definitely shoot for a bit of privacy first. homeless, drug addicted, gang affiliated, this state is wracked with so many social problems which will never be discussed openly because of a screen of embarassment that exists in polite society. its our own doing
rosco
Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 9:28 AMand for australian perspective: new london is the equivalent of a 90s kings cross. only its an entire town albeit small. just densely populated. which is a conduit for crime in impoverished areas anyways
Rachael
Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 10:27 AMAs someone who actually lives in a town neighbouring the town where this is happening you should know that what these vagrants are doing is preposterous! There are more then enough places in New London for the public to be able to relieve themselves. The train and bus station downtown is open all the time. They could go there. There are homeless shelters in the city. New London is a great city full of history and culture. I truly hope the despicable acts of a few don’t taint your views of the many other wonderful people here.
rosco
Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 7:42 AMtypical resident of connecticut right there. pretentious display of foreign grammar “neighbouring” too – dont worry, theyre only australian, they can speak your language