Town Council: "Do Not Ruin New Jersey's Famously Pleasant Bouquet With Your Stinky Urine"

Galloway Township is doing it’s part in the “Jersey Doesn’t Stink” campaign. As the Press of Atlantic City reports: “The Township Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night that would allow police to fine people as much as $1,000, with potential jail time and community service, for urinating or defecating in public, Mayor Keith Hartman said.”

The passage of the law (which seems rather Draconian, no?) gives a good look at how things get done in the not-always-garden-fresh Garden State. Apparently, members of the town council were upset when a sheriff was legally unable to prevent a bar from holding a “Girls Gone Wild” promotional event in April, and they decided to pass an indecency act. But most of the language regarding obscene language and gestures was taken out of the bill because the council could not agree on a definition of obscenity. So all that’s left is you can’t pee behind the trees in the Pine Barrens.

Helpfully, NJ.com’s Greg Saitz has put together a list of the best public restrooms in the state. (George Costanza kept a similar list for New York on Seinfeld.) The best one, though, isn’t really a public bathroom, although if you found your way to artist Ricky Boscarino’s house in Montague, I’m betting he’d help out a traveler in need. Look at this place!

“I refer to it as a temple honoring the body and its function,” says Boscarino.

That’s kind of the way I think about New Jersey as a whole.