Posted on 07/17/2008 8:41:44 AM PDT by george76
After spending $5 million on its five automated public toilets, Seattle is calling it quits.
In the end, the restrooms, installed in early 2004, had become so filthy, so overrun with drug abusers and prostitutes, that although use was free of charge, even some of the city’s most destitute people refused to step inside them.
The units were put up for sale Wednesday afternoon on eBay, with a starting bid set by the city at $89,000 apiece.
The dismal outcome coincides with plans by New York, Los Angeles and Boston, among other cities, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for expansion this fall in their installation of automated toilets — stand-alone structures with metal doors that open at the press of a button and stay closed for up to 20 minutes. The units clean themselves after each use, disinfecting the seats and power-washing the floors.
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. Then there was the matter of cost: $1 million apiece over five years, which because of a local ordinance had to be borne entirely by taxpayers instead of advertisers.
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... “But I won’t even go inside that thing now. It’s disgusting.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
want a $89,000 toilet?
lmao. What the heck did they expect. Dogooders are dumbarses.
“stay closed up to 20 minutes” I hope it doesn’t just open to the world in the middle of a Taco reBellion.
What the hcck is automated about these toilets?
What idiot thought these would be a good idea? I at least know it was a Democrat. But then again, that’s like calling water wet. It just goes without saying.
Do like they do in other countries that have public toilets...hire someone to take care of them.
lmbo!You know it’s bad when crack users and prostitutes won’t use the public toilets because of filth!
I think Berkley needs those $89.000 toilets, the tree sitters could come down from their roosts at night to use them and the Code Pinkos protesting the Marines could use them.
When the crack smokers won’t use the toilets......that’s pretty bad.
Even a functional moron can waste taxpayer money. Takes no effort whatsoever.
I wonder if any heads will roll over this idiotic idea?
I doubt it.
Purchasing a pre-owned APT can offer significant savings for any company, municipality or other agency considering such facilities, as the cost per unit new is approximately $500,000.
That's right, folks! The City of Seattle paid half a million buckadingdongs for a high-tech, stainless-steel crapper. I guess you could take a Sawzall to it to cut a little moon in the door if you want a mighty fine outhouse. You gotta dig yer own hole, though, and put concrete in there or it won't fit. They say they got most of the graffitti off but I'm not sure I like the look of the eelectric hand towel thingy.
Nasty.
Hahaha. Seattle. What did they expect?
I wouldn’t buy these “sin cubicles”. There’s too much nasty history in them. I’m reminded of W.C. Fields saying “I don’t drink water: fish **** in it.”
“We in the U.S. have yet to shed our puritanical roots,” he said. “We are uptight about toilets.”"
"Why, a Frenchman will sit in the middle of the sidewalk doing his business. THAT'S how progressive they are!", says Mr. Leonard as he tries to shame people into accepting his stupid public toilet design.
If anyone is interested in seeing the eBay auctions:
http://shop.ebay.com/items/?_nkw=wcmatic&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270
So far this is my favorite quote of the year.
if that is PROGRESSIVE, I don't want it!!
“Even a functional moron can waste taxpayer money. Takes no effort whatsoever.”
Ain’t THAT the truth....a la Washington,DC!
It certainly is.
And our old outhouse has a MUCH more comfortable (& warmer!) seat than that flat, contourless granite counter top with a basin hole cut in it.
Ummmm, it’s not the toilets, it’s the scum using them. And advertising? What can be aimed at hookers and druggies? Well, that anyone wants to sell?
Maybe Barbara Striesand and Hillary Clinton will be interested. Their gold plated personal mobile pottys maybe due replacement. Those porta-pottys have a lot of mileage on them. They also have endured an overload of crap from those “queens”.
does it come with the shit and semen stains behind the toilet and on the rails?
this idea is proof theres such a thing as caring too much
How bad does a bathroom have to be for a homeless crackhead to reject it?
$5 million dollars wasted. Who bears the blame of this, democrats or republicans, need I ask?
"Obama as president? Even I couldn't handle that s***!"
Apparently the city workers couldn’t be induced to actually clean out the units once in a while?
Did the council seriously think that “self-cleaning” meant “maintenance-free?”
Exactly so. I seem to recall at the time that city officials were talking about how vagrants and drug abusers didn’t have anyplace to go to the toilet - some were having to wait until public buildings opened. And this would take care of it. Worth a million dollars, dontcha think???
Somehow I don’t picture personal hygiene being high on the priority list for drug users, prostitutes and drunks.
And now they say their mistake was to put it in an area that had drug users, prostitutes and drunks. Puh leeze.
Clearly a liberal design .......no TP or gunrack !
No thanks. I remodled a bathroom last year for only half of that!!
[/sarcasm]
Did Expedia.com include this review of the city of Seattle???
NO STARS
They will probably export them to Europe and Japan for use in exotic sex hotels. The tourists can get a taste of decadent life in America.
Sheryl Ol’ Crow probably endorse these things, one sheet of TP and no more, please.
Shouldn’t this thread have had a barf alert?
Maybe they are getting rid of them because the budget was blown and they couldn’t avoid the Islamic wash basins. Better to get rid of them altogether than to risk being on the receiving end of jihad.
For a million dollars each, they could have built a multi-stall facility and staffed it with 24-hour security.
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.
But given that lesser privacy, it is unclear how popular such a toilet might be, as Mr. Leonard acknowledges.
“We in the U.S. have yet to shed our puritanical roots,” he said. “We are uptight about toilets.”
I'm sick of hearing the Left decry our "purtianical roots". Few people crap in the street anywhere in this world.
$89,000,000 toilet here. No takers.
Toilets #1-5. No bids.
That ain’t granite........
This is the quintessence of elitism:
Help others who won’t help themselves, Liberally helping yourselves to the money of the productive to buy self-cleaning units at enormous expense to be SURE you don’t actually have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
The opposite of true humanitarianism, posing as the real deal.
Fairgrounds and special events around the country get by with porta-potties that have biodegrading chemicals and can’t cost more than a few thousand dollars.
Hey Seattle, check out Thomas Register for some cheaper resources.
Toilets #1-5. No bids.
Shocked.
/s
They have photos up of each $89k terlet.
You can make out some of the graffiti. No phone numbers though.
lol
Clearly a liberal design .......no TP or gunrack !
This is one of those threads I’m not going to read, but thanks for the pings, anyway, lol.
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