Seattle Flushes $5M High-Tech Toilets

theodp writes "Hopes were high back in 2004 as Seattle's posh public potties opened for business. But four years later, city officials have said good riddance to the five high-tech toilets, self-cleaning and cylindrical, that had cost Seattle $5 million. The city unloaded them on eBay for just $12,549. The commodes had become filthy hide-outs for drug use and prostitution."

Comments

Just Remember...

[bistromath007]

We're talking about Seattle, so most of the people there would've been cool with that if the janitor had just visited more often.

God, I wish I didn't have to move. ;_;

Re:Just Remember...

[Z00L00K]

The insight here was that they were self-cleaning so no need for a janitor.

But maybe an option should have been that if somebody was there for more than 30 minutes then the self cleaning should have started.

Re:Just Remember...

[LiquidCoooled]

Hey, the homeless get free showers and the prostitutes stop being dirty*.

Win/Win.

*Of course, she might have to do a little gymnastics depending upon the location of the cleansing jets.

Re:Just Remember...

[nbert]

The insight here was that they were self-cleaning so no need for a janitor.

Let's see: They estimated maintenance costs of $600,000 a year. I don't know much about wages in the US, but it's fair to assume that 5 janitors would have done the job at a lower price.

Ignoring the price tag and maintenance cost I'm still wondering why those toilets failed in Seattle. We have toilets from the same manufacturer over here (Berlin, DE) and they don't attract much drug abuse or prostitution, because if you spend too much time in there the door simply opens.
I'm not kidding, it happened to a friend of mine who for some reason unknown to me decided to roll a joint in there. Since he told me I've stopped using them for their intended purpose.

Re:Just Remember...

[Anonymous Coward]

We have toilets from the same manufacturer over here (Berlin, DE) and they don't attract much drug abuse or prostitution, because if you spend too much time in there the door simply opens.
I'm not kidding, it happened to a friend of mine who for some reason unknown to me decided to roll a joint in there. Since he told me I've stopped using them for their intended purpose.

A) Funny parts bolded.

B) Your friend is slow. I suggest a rolling machine.

Re:Just Remember...

[Mr. Slippery]

Pay toilets were popular in the U.S. in the 1970s. They ended up being banned in many cities; where they weren't, vandalism and theft put them out of business.

If you consider that the alternative to free public toilets is people pissing, even crapping, in the alleys, then free public toilets are clearly a public good. If people are using them for prostitution and drug use, if homeless people are using them for shelter, that's a symptom of deeper problems. These problems ought to be solved by removing laws against consensual crimes and by addressing homelessness with affordable housing and decent health care - not by encouraging people to piss in the alley.

Re:Just Remember...

[Atrox666]

I've seen people do far more harm to themselves with a World of Warcraft addiction than a pot addiction. Just because some losers may not be able to handle something doesn't mean the people who aren't losers should be denied the use of it. That kind of thinking is a race to the bottom because there are always idiots who can't handle any given freedom.

Tragic.

[dangitman]

And common.

Meanwhile, 3 hours by car away...

[BadAnalogyGuy]

In Vancouver, BC, drug use and prostitution are (if not outright legal) decriminalized. This means that the government is able to help those with a problem instead of being forced to put them away in prison.

The public toilets getting abused is a sign of a much deeper problem. It's the puritanical mindset of Americans that pushes these normal behaviors into the shadows and away from the help that the victims so desperately need.

It's a total waste of time to sell these things. It just means fewer public bathrooms downtown, and if you've ever been to a city with no public bathrooms (Philadelphia), you know that the terrible smell is the result.

Re:Meanwhile, 3 hours by car away...

[The_Mr_Flibble]

"The park is a popular gathering place for tourists, but also for the mentally ill, vagrants, alcoholics, and drug addicts. Public inebriation, nudity, and calls for assistance for unconscious individuals are common; a fall-off due to increased policing in the 1990s proved shortlived. There are a lot of drug-related misdemeanors and even minor felonies, though there have been no homicides."

Hey I'm british
That describes just about any sort of park I visit

Re:Meanwhile, 3 hours by car away...

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Parisian, I can tell you that the people here will probably not move their finger to prevent druggies and prostitutes in toilets. But the cops will.

I think the issue in Seattles is the classic political correctness of Americans:

Toilets had to be accessible to disabled people.

Due to that requirement, you end up with huge toilets, which, by definition, have more use than the Parisian sanisette (I think that if a prostitute went with customers in a sanisette, there would probably be people outside clapping their hands when they would come out, due to sheer awesomeness of such an act).

Also, being huge, Seattles sanisettes were costly, so they ended up with only 5. 5 is a very small number, so of course they have been broken very fast.

In Paris, sanisettes are NOT accessible to disabled people. There are special ones that ARE accessible, but those are NOT accessible to the general public (you need a specific card), so they are kept in a correct state.

That is not politically correct. But it works.

Open the pot bay door, Hal

[wisty]

I'm sorry David, I can't do that.

I hear Google is offering a replacement

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is offering the use of a new set of public gToilets in exchange for the ability to scan your waste for leftover products and potential diseases and then offer you contextual ads while you're in the unit.

New tag line

[edittard]

Slashdot - news of turds, stuff that splatters.

Re:Drug use and Prostitution are normal?

[Mr. Slippery]

Because heroin isn't exactly an unknown quantity. We've known that it's 100 percent addictive for, oh, centuries now.

Except that heroin is not 100% addictive: perhaps more like 10% of heroin users are addicts. And it was first synthesized in 1874 and only became popular after it was independently re-synthesized 23 years later, and was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute until 1910 - its addictive nature has in fact been understood for less than a century.

You know what's going to happen when you put that needle in your arm. You know because everyone else that's done it has ended up the same way.

Yeah, you might end up like David Bowie or Keith Richards or hundreds of other famous musicians, actors, writers, artists who have used heroin...for those can afford their fix and have access to the pure stuff, heroin use or even addiction is not a big deal. It's less damaging to your body than addiction to cigarettes or alcohol.

As Bill Hicks noted, "If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CDs and burn them. Cause you know what? The musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Real fucking high on drugs."

Which is not to suggest anyone go shoot heroin. The crap you buy from typical street dealers is cut with gods-only-know-what and may well kill you; and really, there are better ways to spend your time and money.

And yet, after decades of "tolerance" they're busy dismantling the Red Light district in Amsterdam

Again, your facts are in error. The prostitution shops were only licensed in 2000, not "decades" ago. And they're shutting down owners believed to have criminal connections, not the entire district.

I will recommend Peter McWilliams' book Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country, available online at www.mcwilliams.com.

Sadly, McWilliams became a victim of the War on (some) Drugs when his access to medical marijuana, used to treat symptoms of AIDS and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was ended; forced to switch to the ineffective Marinol, he aspirated his own vomit and choked to death.

The misinformation you are spreading is killing people. Please, cut it out.