Talking urination and misinformation with Soulard’s Ken Ortmann
By James Nicholson
St. Louis alderman and bar owner Ken Ortmann watched his two jobs come together this winter when news of his proposed public-urination ordinance trickled through Soulard. The ordinance passed, and so did the ... statutory showers, so things are getting back to normal in the 9th Ward.
Your public-urination proposal raised some eyebrows. A judge asked me to do what I did. The problem in the courts is that, because of the current wording, it’s tied in with sex acts. My intent was never to lessen the penalty but to separate the categories and correct a problem in dealing with the courts—then the Post blew it out of all proportion. I’m not in favor of public urination. It aggravates me.
So what does the new ordinance do? It’s two separate things. It makes it so that public urination is public urination and not a sexual offense. But I did not amend the prior ordinance, so if you stand out on the corner and pee in front of God and country, you could still be charged with a lewd and indecent act.
You are a bar owner—maybe you were trying to take it easy on your customers. Me having a bar, Mardi Gras—that had nothing to do with this. Let someone come down to my bar and pee outside. I’ll throw their ass out, and if I can get ahold of a police officer, I will be the witness. They can lock them up, for all I care.
The 9th Ward gets trendier every year. What’s the secret to making city living attractive to suburban types? Weeding and seeding. I want to run the bad guys out and work with the good ones to seed the area with developers. In the 9th Ward, it’s all positive, good development.
Once Ash Wednesday ends the party, does the activity slow down? It never stops. The community never stops. Most of my constituents think they can find me at the bar. I prefer to do business at home, where I can keep track of it properly.
