The practice of locking publicly-accessible bathrooms in businesses was initially a shock to this Alabama refugee. After I spent some time in SF, the reason for the practice became clear.<p>In the downtown districts of San Francisco that aren&#x27;t FiDi, there are usually-operational free public toilets. There aren&#x27;t enough of them, and they too-often out of service, but they <i>do</i> exist.