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Those space-age automated public toilets—or A.P.T.s, as they're known in the business—are all the rage in the two locations where they've been installed. Cemusa, the Spanish company that won a contract in 2005 to install 20 of them citywide, says that the self-cleaning A.T.P. in Madison Square Park was used 2,736 times in a recent 30-day period, while the one in Corona was used 1,920 times. So why have only two been installed since the prototype was unveiled back in 2006? A spokesman for the DOT tells the Times, "Some communities don’t want A.P.T.’s." You'll recall that some Park Slope residents had objected to a proposed toilet at Grand Army Plaza, and a Councilwoman representing the Upper East Side also declined.
And even if the community is in favor of a certain location, there are other factors to consider; a Cemusa spokesman explains, "We have to figure out: Is there a sewer at the site? Is there access to water? There needs to be accessibility to the facility for people with disabilities. It’s just more challenging than people think." It's also more expensive—each toilet and its installation cost between $300,000 to $500,000! Plus, the toilets needed to be hooked up to phone lines so the units can alert Cemusa to problems or emergencies. The company claims that three toilets they had hoped to install by the end of the year were stymied by engineering concerns, so for the time being most New Yorkers will have to keep begging for relief at restaurants and Starbucks.
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#2 you say? ha!
So are men allowed to enter one of those with a child? The graphics in the photo show that the bathroom is unisex, handicapped accessible, and open to women with a child, but how about dads?
Bravo on the headline. Slightly tortured, but I understand that you couldn't leave that joke on the table.
We live in a fucking third world country now. USA USA USA!!!
um yeah, we are third world. burundi and somalia have A.P.T.'s too, they are called "holes in the ground."
So that's what they're called....
it's a technical term, mind you.
Leaders of the Third World. We are far ahead of Somalia and Burundi, we can be proud of that for sure.
pretty reputable news sources there buddy -- relevance to a "$300,000 to $500,000" toilet? that robo-shitter price tag is a bit steep for a 3rd world nation, no?
"pretty reputable news sources there buddy "
??? Is this a serious response?
In First World countries, public monies are used to benefit the public. Not funneled into privatized military industries.
military? what? 3rd world? huh?
your position from the get-go (usa is 3rd world) has nothing to do with this story. this article is about public dollars funding public robo-toilets and the pretentious communities that don't want them.
Let it go, he will just keep linking to irrelevant 2006 articles with al frankens seal of approval.
you cannot apply logic when dealing with a wake-and-bake failure.
Starbucks are the city equivalent of the roadside gas station bathroom.
$500,000 and they still had engineering problems? Do they use $100 bills for toilet paper?
Too true about Starbucks. If it weren't for their magnanimity, EVERY corner would reek of urine and feces instead of just every other one. God forbid we'd try to join the ranks of modernized societies that acknowledge people's need to pee and poop...
If I see it correctly, it costs 25ยข to use the device. I thought pay toilets were outlawed years ago.
Just go to your local subway station and shit on a staircase for free
I see that the 3rd light says "Night Closure". So these things lock down at night? WTF? That's when everywhere else is closed, I'm wasted, and I need to find somewhere to pee/crap that isn't my pants.
just find your nearest housing project and do what the natives do piss all over the elevators and stairways...free of charge
....and then complain that you live in a disgusting slum.
They have a problem with this in Park Slope and the UES?? What a shock!
Incidentally, Park Slope and the UES are the two neighborhoods in which I'm most likely to pee on someone's stoop.
COMFORT QUARTER
Some Slopers object to any pay toilets
At Grand Army Plaza
In fear perhaps that tony tourists
Will mistake the area for Gaza.
Yet Paris somehow survived for years
Inside and outside its Bois
With people-pleasing, Maman-approving,
Oasis-like pissoirs.
Our neighborhood of sky, not skyline,
Can carry on its shoulders
No end of heaven-sent W.C.s,
Just as it rolls with strollers.
Killer headline. There's clearly a shameless punster on the loose at Gothamist.
These things are all over San Francisco, and they look like the fancy Parisian loos, too. It was really quite nice having these in large squares and other public areas where one might actually need them. And they're self-cleaning! Seriously, can't NYC just get its freaking act together?!
Or get its shit together.
I'd like to see Bloomie tout more public toilets in his latest ads. But it's probably another promise he could not keep.
Yes, they're all over San Francisco. And basically every single one has become the epicenter of a 24/7 junkie/hooker/wino convention. (I pass by the 24th & Mission one on a daily basis; two other locations multiple times a week.)
The problem is that 15 minutes for 25 cents is the perfect amount of time in which to tie up and fix, or give a john a blowjob --- or probably both. So despite the best of intentions, San Francisco's APTs have become a constant and expensive subsidy to the city's pusher and pimp populations. Nobody else uses the damn things if there is any other possible alternative (there are limits to what the automated cleaning can do), and they are constantly under repair.
Basically, you can't have nice things.
Bah. Thank you, crappy gothamist commenting system.
Yes, they're all over San Francisco. And basically every single last one has become the epicenter of a 24/7 junkie/wino/hooker convention. (I pass by the 24th & Mission one on a daily basis; the 16th & Mission and Army/South Van Ness ones multiple times per week.)
The problem is that 15 minutes for 25 cents is pretty much the perfect amount of time to tie up and fix, or give a john a blowjob -- or hell, probably both. So despite the best of intentions, the APTs in San Francisco have become a very expensive subsidy to the local pimp and pusher communities. You won't see anyone else using them except when there is no possible other alternative.
My mom taught me to always make a tinkle before I go anywhere.
True story: In a past life I attended a city agency planning meeting for bringing these pay toilets to NYC -- in 1989!
Now, 20 years later, there are two in service.
Brilliant headline. Welcome back.
I have used the one a few times at madison sq park I always seem to need it about 10 minutes after having a shake shack burger.
We are heading toward Second World status, but nowhere near 3rd world (yet).
For $500,000 you can build a small building with heat, AC and communication 24/7. For much less you can plunk down a prefabricated building.
But will it have a pay toilet?
For the alleged cost of one Overgizmotized Billboard holder: If you gave $500 (and maybe some other no-cost) incentives and the right to charge a few quarters to the appropriate parties, a thousand existing toilets might bloom welcome signs overnight, and begin to address the seriousness of a subject which is most well known as home to moronic or infantile humor and Endless Double Entendres, a fault even I, clearly, have a hard time escaping..........from The Privy Council, advocating for rational not symbolic responses to real problems.
Didn't we organize to ban pay toilets in the 70s? I believe it was the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America. Great patriots, they were.