Public bathrooms in NE, BE, FR, GB are paid per use and far between. My mom has stories of jumping under the stalls if they didn't have the shilling, sixpence or whatever it was in the 60's. In LA, it's mostly systematic hatred targeting minorities and homeless people from completely necessary bodily functions... which is dumb to deny, because they'll do it 'round back for spite... the owner could so just be cool and ask everyone to promise (really) to not make a mess and keep it very clean so people feel slightly worse if they were to slob it up.

Also, every Starbucks in the U.S. seems to give out water or water with ice upon request. That's not the same as a community identity space and symbol of a water fountain or a Roman aqueduct with water endlessly flowing out of a hole in the wall (we're obviously not able to waste as much as in the past).

Perhaps the symbol of the commons replaced with nothing but apparent commercial options is what people are moral panicking about? Or is there (perhaps as a result of what follows) a popular, definite consumer mentality shift to eschewing anything free == not good, expensive == good?