question: Why aren't there public showers in most cities?
comment: Because public showers would primarily benefit people who are homeless or housing unstable. Such people often cannot vote because they don't have a fixed address. They also don't pay taxes, and taxpayers get upset when taxes go towards things that don't directly benefit them. Homeless people have neither political nor economic power, and no one else will advocate for them, so politicians aren't interested in improving their conditions. [Occupy Kalamazoo]( URL_0 ) is one of the only recent instances I can think of where homeless people were able to organize a political action, and it resulted in a lot of retaliation.
passages: Since the 1950s in cities, towns and many rural areas more comfortable dwelling became a nationally required standard, and almost all apartments are designed with both cold and hot water supply, and a bathroom with a bathtub, but a percentage of people living in them still go to public steam baths for health treatments with steam, tree branches, aromatic oils.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Bathing
  
  BULLET::::- Steam shower
  
  BULLET::::- Water park
  
  BULLET::::- By culture
  
  BULLET::::- Gymnasium (ancient Greece)
  
  BULLET::::- Banya – Russian
  
  BULLET::::- Sauna – Finnish
  
  BULLET::::- Hammam – Turkish
  
  BULLET::::- Hanjeungmak & Jjimjilbang – Korean
   Since the first half of the 20th century running unheated drinking water supply has been made available virtually to all inhabitants of multy-storey apartment buildings in cities, but if such dwellings were built during the 1930s and not updated later, they do not have hot running water (except for central heating) or space to accommodate a bathtub, plumbing facilities being limited in them only to a kitchen sink and a small toilet room with a toilet seat. Thus the dwellers of such apartments, on a par with those living in the part of pre-1917-built blocks of flats which had not undergone cardinal renovation, would have no choice but to use public bathhouses.
   A notable exception to this trend was in Finland and Scandinavia, where the sauna remained a popular phenomenon, even expanding during the Reformation period, when European bath houses were being destroyed. Finnish saunas remain an integral and ancient part of the way of life there. They are found on the lake shore, in private apartments, corporate headquarters, at the Parliament House and even at the depth of in Pyhäsalmi Mine. The sauna is an important part of the national identity and those who have the opportunity usually take a sauna at least once a week.
   The building of public baths in the United States began in the 1890s. Notable constructions of the period include Bathhouse Row in Arkansas, and Asser Levy Public Baths in New York City. Public baths were created to improve health and sanitary condition of the public before personal baths became commonplace.
  
  Section::::Modern public bathing.:British Empire.
  
  The first modern public baths were opened in Liverpool in 1829. The first known warm fresh-water public wash house was opened in May 1842.
   On average, showers were 18% of U.S. indoor water use in 1999, at per minute traditionally in America. A simple method to reduce this use is to switch to low-flow, high-performance showerheads. These showerheads use only 1.0-1.5 gpm or less. An alternative to replacing the showerhead is to install a converter. This device arrests a running shower upon reaching the desired temperature. Solar water heaters can be used to obtain optimal water temperature, and are more sustainable because they reduce dependence on fossil fuels. To lessen excess water use, water pipes can be insulated with pre-slit foam pipe insulation. This insulation decreases hot water generation time. A simple, straightforward method to conserve water when showering is to take shorter showers. One method to accomplish this is to turn off the water when it is not necessary (such as while lathering) and resuming the shower when water is necessary. This can be facilitated when the plumbing or showerhead allow turning off the water without disrupting the desired temperature setting (common in the UK but not the United States).
   Section::::Benefits.
  
  Water recycling showers have been explored by people who wish to conserve water and the energy needed to heat the water, for both environmental and economic reasons.
  
  Section::::Benefits.:Energy savings.
   In the 17th century, the first European visitors to Japan recorded the habit of daily baths in sexually mixed groups. Before the mid-19th century, when Western influence increased, nude communal bathing for men, women, and children at the local unisex public bath, or "sentō", was a daily fact of life.
  
  In contemporary times, many, but not all administrative regions forbid nude mixed gender public baths. Public baths using water from "onsen" (hot springs) are particularly popular. Towns with hot springs are destination resorts, which are visited daily by the locals and people from other, neighboring towns.
  
  Section::::History.:Ottoman Empire.
   Dr. Garrett G Fagan, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, described public bathing as a "social event" for the Romans in his book "Bathing in Public in the Roman World". He also states that "In Western Europe only the Finns still practice a truly public bathing habit."
  
  Section::::Modern public bathing.
   Section::::History.
  
  Section::::History.:Ancient Greece.
  
  In "The Book of the Bath", Françoise de Bonneville wrote, "The history of public baths begins in Greece in the sixth century B.C.," where men and women washed in basins near places of exercise, physical and intellectual. Later gymnasia had indoor basins set overhead, the open maws of marble lions offering showers, and circular pools with tiers of steps for lounging.
   Traditionally in Indonesia, bathing is almost always "public", in the sense that people might converge in riverbanks, pools or watersprings either for bathing or washing laundry. However, for modesty purposes, some sections of riverbanks apply sex segregation. Bathing completely naked is quite uncommon, as people might still use "kain jarik" (usually batik clothes or sarong) wrapped around their body to cover their genitals during bathing. More modest bathing springs might use weaved bamboo partitions for privacy. This is still common practice in villages and rural areas in Indonesia.
   Section::::History.:Decline.
  
  Immediately after World War II, resources were scarce and few homeowners had access to a private bath. Private baths began to be more common around 1970, and most new buildings included a bath and shower unit for every apartment. Easy access to private baths led to a decline in customers for public bathhouses, and subsequently the number of bathhouses is decreasing. Some Japanese young people today are embarrassed to be seen naked, and avoid public baths for this reason. Some Japanese are concerned that without the "skinship" of mutual nakedness, children will not be properly socialized.
  
  Section::::History.:Future.
   Furthermore, another law for segregated bathing was passed in 1890, allowing only children below the age of 8 to join a parent of the opposite sex.
  
  Section::::History.:Rebuilding.
   With the growth of Russian big cities since the 18th century, public baths were opened in them and then back in villages. While the richer urban circles could afford having an individual bathroom with a bathtub in their apartments (since the late 19th century with running water), the lower classes necessarily used public steambaths - special big buildings which were equipped with developed side catering services enjoyed by the merchants with farming background.
   Many modern athletic and aquatic facilities provide showers for use by patrons, commonly in gender segregated changing rooms. These can be in the form of individual stalls shielded by curtains or a door or communal shower rooms. The latter are generally large open rooms with any number of shower heads installed either directly into the walls or on posts throughout the shower area. Open showers are often provided at public swimming pools and at popular beaches. Military forces around the world set up field showers to enable the washing away of dangerous residue from modern weapons such as caustic chemicals, deadly biological agents, and radioactive materials, which can harm forces on both sides of a conflict.
   Shower usage in the latter half of the 20th century skyrocketed. Personal hygiene became a primary concern, and bathing every day or multiple times a day is common among Western cultures. Showering is generally faster than bathing and can use less water. In an average home, showers are typically the third largest water use after toilets and clothes washers. The average American shower uses 17.2 gallons (65.1 liters) and lasts for 8.2 minutes at average flow rate of 2.1 gallons per minute (gpm) (7.9 lpm). Showering is one of the leading ways we use water in the home, accounting for nearly 17 percent of residential indoor water use, roughly equals to 1.2 trillion gallons of water annually just for showering. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommend to retrofit home showers with a shower head that uses less than 2.0 gallons per minute to conserve water. However, many have hypothesized reducing flow rates of showerheads might cause users to take much longer showers. Other options to save water include using extra high pressure mist flow or design in sensors and valves to shut off or reduce water flow while people are not actively using the shower water. 
   Roman style public baths were introduced on a limited scale by returning crusaders in the 11th and 12th centuries, who had enjoyed warm baths in the Middle East. These, however, rapidly degenerated into brothels or at least the reputation as such and were closed down at various times. For instance, in England during the reign of Henry II, bath houses, called "bagnios" from the Italian word for bath, were set up in Southwark on the river Thames. They were all officially closed down by Henry VIII in 1546 due to their negative reputation.
   In the United States, and some of the English-speaking majority of Canada, students at public schools have historically been required to shower communally with classmates of the same sex after physical education classes. In the U.S., public objections and the threat of lawsuits have led a number of school districts in recent years to change policy to make showers optional or to abolish the practice entirely. Private boarding schools and military academies in the U.S. often have communal showers, since the focus there is on 24-hours-a-day education and rooming, rather than just acting as day schools. Students in these establishments need places to clean themselves daily.
   Nearly 1.2 trillion gallons of water is used in the United States annually just for showering. This is enough to supply the water needs of New York and New Jersey for a year. Manufacturers of recycling showers typically claim an 80% to 90% reduction in shower water consumption.
  
  Also, before the shower reaches the set temperature, users leave the tap running. Typically 20 percent of every shower session is essentially lost this way.
  
  Section::::Benefits.:Comfort increase.
   In 1895, a law was enacted making it mandatory to establish free public baths in cities in which the population exceeded 50,000 persons. Maintenance of these facilities was provided for by local health boards. Cities and villages having fewer than 100,000 people might construct public baths with loans on their credit or appropriate funds for their establishment. The 1895 law stated that the public baths were to be open for fourteen hours per day and that both hot and cold water were to be provided.
   Modern communal showers were installed in the barracks of the French army in the 1870s as an economic hygiene measure, under the guidance of François Merry Delabost, a French doctor and inventor. As surgeon-general at Bonne Nouvelle prison in Rouen, Delabost had previously replaced individual baths with mandatory communal showers for use by prisoners, arguing that they were more economical and hygienic. The French system of communal showers was adopted by other armies, the first being that of Prussia in 1879, and by prisons in other jurisdictions. They were also adopted by boarding schools, before being installed in public bathhouses. The first shower in a public bathhouse was in 1887 in Vienna, Austria. In France, public bathhouses and showers were established by Charles Cazalet, firstly in Bordeaux in 1893 and then in Paris in 1899.
   From around 1920–1930, Paris saw the construction of numerous new public swimming pools, although the development of aquatic recreation in France still lagged behind that of Great Britain and Germany. However, public pools also hosted bathing facilities, as many French homes did not have their own bathrooms.
   In some countries, fears about the spread of STDs have prompted the closing of bathhouseswith their private roomsin favour of sex clubs, in which all sexual activity takes place in the open, and can be observed by monitors whose job it is to enforce safe-sex practices. However, proponents of bathhouses point out that closing these facilities does not prevent people from engaging in unsafe sex.
   Section::::Personal life.
   BULLET::::- Hand held hoses, sprinklers and watering systems may be used only before 10 am and after 4 pm on any day - to avoid the heat of the day
  
  BULLET::::- No hosing of hard surfaces such as paths and driveways. Washing vehicles is allowed.
  
  BULLET::::- Fire hoses may be used for fire fighting activities only.
   BULLET::::- 24% toilets
  
  BULLET::::- 3% baths
  
  BULLET::::- 20% showers
  
  BULLET::::- 17% Clothes washers
  
  BULLET::::- 1% Dishwashers
  
  BULLET::::- 19% Faucets
  
  BULLET::::- 4% Other domestic uses
  