Man, Steve Jobs' Palo Alto must have been a truly special place. The only memorable thing I encountered in Palo Alto's street (while working there a few years ago) was the overwhelming stench of urine in the underpass beneath the Caltrain Station.
More seriously, there really is an absurd shortage of clean, available, public restrooms that are open 24 hours. It's a huge issue in the Bay Area and SF especially, but it's bad in many US cities.
At some point we seem to have decided that clean streets (and train stations) are not worth the changes in regulatory requirements and funding that would be required. Palo Alto actually has a pleasant and quaint waiting room from its Southern Pacific days - but of course it's always closed, especially post-pandemic.
I was shocked recently though when I was in a BART station that had a public restroom that was actually open and maintained. Seems like a good idea considering how often escalators are "closed for maintenance."
