South Side's automatic pay toilet stays clean

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Friday, March 5, 2004 | Gwen Arbuckle

[Willie Green]

A lonely soul puts 25 cents into a slot and a panel slides open, revealing exactly what the customer needs so desperately.

It's not a Liberty Avenue peepshow, it's an East Carson Street pit stop.

Clear Channel Adshel's automatic pay toilet recently celebrated a year of providing Pittsburghers with, well, a place to go. According to Adshel Vice President Richard Grasso, visitors are treating automatically cleaning super-sanitary attraction with respect usually reserved for royal thrones, not porcelain ones.

[Willie Green]

Related threads:

High-tech toilet is drawing only a piddling number of customers
South Side gets streetside pay toilet
In days of old, most toilet facilities weren't exactly commodious

[Willie Green]

Happy Aniversary!

[mcg1969]

Ho hum. Palo Alto, California has had these self-cleaning pay toilets for years. I believe San Francisco does as well. The author seems to think that somehow Pittsburgh and New York are unique here. Uh-uh.

[martin_fierro]

	It's a 'Burgh Thing.TM
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Learn Pittsburghese!

"If you think Paris is sophisticated, wait until you see the new Pittsburgh International Airport!"

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[xsmommy]

anniversary? did the three of us get married and i didn't know it... ; ) ?

[martin_fierro]

I believe San Francisco does as well.

Yeah, but unlike 'Frisco, ain't nobody living in the Pittsburgh public head. Ho hum.

[martin_fierro]

Ew. Just. Ew.

[xsmommy]

heck, in SF they would probably give the three of us a marriage license!!

[prion]

The toilets are found all over European cities, getting between 300 and 400 hits a week.

"Hits"? Boy, the web has permeated everything.

[Cicero]

I'm old enough to remember when there used to be public toilets everywhere. Grand Central Station. The New York City Subway system. Public libraries.

Then the barbarians arrived. Or, if you prefer, the countercultural revolution of the 1960s. Grafitti, vandalism, people raped and murdered in public restrooms. Instead of dealing with it, the politicians responded by closing all the restrooms. Too dangerous, too expensive.

This is the most basic kind of public service imaginable, but evidently government has better things to do with their tax dollars.

[Willie Green]

Ew. Just. Ew.

Look at it this way, martin:
If we shared the same quarter, we could save 50¢

[CWOJackson]

"Pittsburgh and New York are the only U.S. cities boasting Adshel pay toilets. Maintenance costs the company about $60,000 per year, Grasso said. Costs are offset by a 10-year bus shelter advertising contract between the city and Adshel."

What slackers. I'm glad to see Seattle is leading the nation in this issue.

The city of Seattle just open five FREE self cleaning, graffiti proof toilets in Pioneer Square; home to countless junkies, perverts and other respectable levels of Seattle society.

All this for just $120,000 a year, EACH. Unfortunately, within two days one of the self cleaning toilet seats was jammed by a discarded needle, they turned out not to be so graffiti proof, and they've proven roomy enough for male and female prostitutes to have some privacy to conduct business.

[TruthSyrum]

What happens if you aren't done in 20 minutes? Ejector seat? talk about being caught in a pinch...

[smokeyb]

I'm afraid that relationship may go "down the drain". Or should I say "in the Mon" ?