Seattle is closing their automatic toilets [5], putting the units on eBay starting at $89,000 each.
From today's New York Times: "Seattle officials say the project here failed because the toilets, which are to close on Aug. 1, were placed in neighborhoods that already had many drug users and transients." What's more, unlike other cities, Seattle law prohibit the city from recouping their costs with ads.
"'Other cities around the world seem to be able to handle toilets civilly,' said Richard McIver, a Seattle city councilman. 'But we were unable to control the street population, and without the benefit of advertising, our costs were awfully high.'
"In Seattle, problems arose almost immediately. Users left so much trash behind that the automated floor scrubbers had to be disabled, and prostitutes and drug users found privacy behind the toilets' locked doors.
"'I'm not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there,' said one homeless woman, Veronyka Cordner, nodding toward the toilet behind Pike Place Market. 'But I won't even go inside that thing now. It's disgusting.'"
But Seattle's decision isn't a setback for the cause of public toilets. It's a step in the direction of a more appropriate technology: humans with brooms for sanitation, and passers-by with eyeballs for security. As the Times says: "Rather than automated toilets, some cities are looking for cheaper alternatives that would be cleaned by human attendants. One prototype, to be installed next month in Portland, Ore., would cost $50,000 each, compared with some $300,000 for an automated unit.
"Randy Leonard, a Portland city commissioner, helped design that toilet, which in addition has open gaps at the top and bottom of the door, a feature discouraging drug abuse, prostitution and the like."
Public toilets have to balance pooping privacy against the human inclination to do terrible things when no one is watching. The gaps in Portland's toilet doors will mean that someone might recognize your shoes, but they'll also ensure the toilets don't get abused so much that you won't want to use them at all.
