"There are bathrooms in the T, but they're usually locked," he said proving his point by trying unsuccessfully to open one of the restroom doors in the Harvard station.

"And in the restaurants, [the bathrooms are] only for the customers," he said. "Yeah, I think [public toilets are] a real good idea."

Beucler said that sometimes he does manage touse the men's room in Au Bon Pain.

But the management at the French-style cafe inHarvard Square said they would prefer thathomeless have alternative public facilities.

"Maintaining the restrooms is a major problem,"said Abdel Gouzoule, associate manager at Au BonPain. "Many of the homeless come in to takeshowers and to shave. In the summer you can seelines down the street. The customers complain."

Wolf said it will take some time for thebusiness community and city officials to arrive ata suitable plan.

While many would like to see street toilets inCambridge, some councillors said they are lessenthusiastic about the installation of thetoilets.

"The notion of public restrooms has been aroundfor a long time and is well worth considering,"said Councillor Jonathan S. Myers. "But we need todo the work to see if it could be done in anefficient and well thought out way."

Other councillors have raised questions as tohow toilets that require money to operate couldhelp the homeless. But Wolf said the council couldaddress this question.

"We would be getting money to pay for themaintenance of the toilets, and could possiblydistribute tokens to those who were in thatsituation," Wolf said