Free Republic

Here's look no. 1 at the city's new pay toilets. The first of 20 new public potties, which will soon offer New Yorkers relief for the price of a quarter, was unveiled in Brooklyn yesterday. The Space Age loos, which look more like elevators from the outside, are self-cleaning and dispense liquid soap and hot water. They are part of the city's joint campaign with a Spanish company to spruce up the streetscape. But while new bus shelters and newsstands may look good, strategically placed comfort stations will be a boon for bladders. "When you gotta go, you gotta go,"...

MOSCOW -- Pay toilets are not unusual, but in school? For a short time, students at a high school in the southern Russian city of Taganrog had to do more than raise their hands and ask for permission to use the bathroom - they had to fork over cash, NTV television reported Tuesday. School officials instituted a plan to charge pupils for toilet trips in order to pay for repairs that were needed after students vandalized bathroom fixtures, NTV said. City education authorities quickly halted the practice, NTV reported, without saying how much they had to pay. The network broadcast...

<p>On a recent afternoon, people hurried along Carson Street in the South Side. Many grabbed lunch. Others were just out for a stroll. None gave more than a sideways glance at the large green structure tucked in the corner of an 18th Street parking lot.</p>