[Photo credit: Downtown News]
After the City removed the plastic portable type, the public toilets downtown are getting all classy. At a cost of $250,000 each, the City is installing four new high-tech public toilets. Skid Row will receive three of them, and the Pershing Square area will receive one. But these are not the nasty port-a-potties of yore. These crappers are fancy:
After every use, the door shuts and the toilet retracts into a behind-the-scenes cleaning area, where it is pressure-washed, disinfected and dried. Meanwhile, the unit's floor and sink are pressurized with water and drained. The toilet bowl swings back around and is ready for use again within minutes. While some APTs cost 25 cents per use, the Skid Row facilities are free.
One of the reasons behind these new-fangled toilets is to give the homeless on Skid Row some toilets they can actually use. This time the City is making it clear: hookers and drug addicts need not apply for residence in these johns. Though, a self-cleaning toilet certainly sounds much nicer as a residence than one of those plastic jobbies.
· Potties and Politics [Downtown News]