Comment of the Day: Pay Toilets

The city and this site is abuzz with news of new public restrooms that cost only $.25 and are self-sanitizing. The standalone units give one 15 minutes to do your business before scrubbing itself down in advance of the next user. Sounds like a nice convenience, although some people wondered who needs 15 minutes in a restroom other than those with gastro-health problems, drug users, and couples looking to engage in some quasi-public-private sex. Commenter JenChungsBra wondered if his experiences in Central America and their free market ass-wiping conventions could improve Gotham's space-age installations:

I liked the system in Chichicastenango in Guatemala. An old man sits at a table outside the public restroom (some grungy holes in the floor of a tin shack) and sells you toilet paper. Put down your two quetzals and he measures off a length of paper with his arm, tears it from a roll and hands it to you. If you think it's not enough you can give him another two quetzals and get some more.

That could increase the revenue for these new pay toilets -- sell extra paper by the square foot.

We may have an entrepreneur among us! Or at least someone willing to lend an idea to an enterprising homeless person. We imagine the profit margin on a few sheets of toilet paper off a $.19 roll could add up substantially.

The Clean Dog NYC, by selyfriday at flickr