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Comment by graeme | Hacker News Reader

>If I'm a restaurant owner and someone is taking up a seat while drinking free tap water, of course I'm not going to like that.

Not how it works. You get free tap water with your order. So no need to use up a plastic bottle.

In extremis you can sometimes walk in if a restaurant isn't busy, ask for a glass of water, drink it while standing, and leave immediately. You would never sit in such a circumstance

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> In extremis you can sometimes walk in if a restaurant isn't busy, ask for a glass of water, drink it while standing, and leave immediately. You would never sit in such a circumstance

Perhaps I'm not used to it, but that sounds extremely silly and rude to me?

Like I said, in extremis. The same way you might ask to use a bathroom at a business you were not a customer at, or to borrow something from a stranger to solve a clear temporary need.

The sort of request that is granted with a smile if asked politely, and denied if asked rudely, basically. Part of the general fabric of society.

You would only ask if you'd been out a while on a hot day and were parched, or something similar. There's surely some social analogue not involving water where you live?

Lack of public bathrooms is a real shame and a failure in planning. It is a universal human right to access a bathroom in public places, or else be okay with people pissing and shitting wherever. I think the same should apply to water access. If no public access to water, businesses should carry that “burden”.

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