"From coffee to $10 martinis, the Mall offers locals and tourists everything they need and more. That is, until that second soy latte raises an excruciating question: Where are the bathrooms?

In the coming years, City Council will spend millions on the Mall, hoping to lure more cash-laden consumers and visitors to Downtown stores and restaurants. A new east-end plaza and a renovated Paramount Theater, for example, are part of Council's vision of the Mall as a place for people to live, work, hang out and spend money. Basic accommodations like public restrooms, however, are not in the immediate plans.

The City has considered installing bathrooms on the Mall for years, says City Manager Gary O'Connell, especially since the success of Fridays After 5. The City had planned to build new restrooms in the Downtown Recreation Center on Market Street, but expenses got in the way. City officials say restrooms would add an extra half-million dollars to the $1.5 million they'll spend over the next six to nine months to renovate the ancient gymnasium.

"We just didn't have the money to do it," says O'Connell.

The City maintains bathrooms in City Hall, the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library on Market Street and the Downtown Visitors Center (tucked obscurely on Second Street SW). All of those places close at 5pm on Fridays - useless for the beer-swollen bladders of the Fridays After 5 masses.

For them, Charlottesville Downtown Foundation -- which hosts Fridays After 5 -- rents porta-potties, set up near the amphitheater. This year, Allied Waste Industries Inc. had the winning bid, supplying and cleaning the 13 toilets for $4,700 for the summer, according to CDF Director Jennifer Taylor. She says CDF hasn't approached the City for help with the bathroom expenses.

"It's our event, so it's our responsibility," says Taylor.

On a recent Friday, typical of many, folks were groaning at the sight of a potty line snaking the length of the City Hall annex. But as people usually don't linger inside porta-johns in the sweltering summer heat, the line seemed to move fast enough -- even for the child urgently gripping the front of his shorts.

In the long run, the City may address the potty problem. It is considering relocating the Visitors Center -- and with it, the public toilets -- to the bus transfer station, which will be the centerpiece of the $6 million renovations planned for the Mall's east end. Architects on the project are also designing improvements for the rest of the Mall. O'Connell says they'll eventually consider other amenities such as pay phones and water fountains.

Fortunately for those burdened with an urgent need to go, most Mall restaurants and bars are willing to share their facilities with non-paying customers-up to a point.

Max Fritz, a shift leader at the Mudhouse, for example, says the coffeeshop's pee policy is "sketchy." The two water closets - one of which offers a blackboard and fat, florescent chalk -- are supposed to be exclusively for customers, but the tolerant barristas usually don't raise a fuss unless someone causes trouble.

Nearby Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6 and the Charlottesville Ice Park take no chances -- the Regal's front door clearly states "Restrooms are for theater patrons only." The same goes for the Ice Park.

But most restaurants let people use their restrooms. Not that their kindness is always rewarded. An employee at Chap's says "sometimes it's a problem." The bathroom in Christian's has been repeatedly graffitied.

The Hardware Store and Hamiltons' say they have no problem with the Friday's After 5 crowd using their restrooms. York Place has restrooms open until llpm, although anecdotal evidence suggests the men's bathroom is often out of toilet paper.

Mall bars are equally hospitable for late-night relief. "We've had no problems so far," says Miller's owner Scottie Kaylor. Rapture and Blue Light are similarly nonchalant.

The Omni hotel enjoys the distinction of being the only place where people can relieve themselves, get a drink of water and make a phone call at all hours; fire codes demand they keep their doors open 24 hours a day, which makes for easy access to the pay phones, water fountains and restrooms in the main lobby

Charlottesville's reliance on the kindness of retailers is by no means typical, however. In Danville, for instance, the city provides plenty of toilets for its "Crossing the Dan" festival.

"We have more potties than we know what to do with," says Dennis Forslund, the event's organizer." (John Borgmeyer, The C-ville Weekly, July 23-29. 2002).

Editor's Note: Pictures by George Loper.