Auto Toilets

The kicker quote at the end of a New York Times article about Seattle's lost battle with human nature says that U.S. Americans are too uptight about our toilets. We might not use one that had door gaps designed to deter illicit activity-seekers, for example.

I have never used a million-dollar automatic toilet, but I do have experience with a variety of places-to-go, including the old fashioned (90s) French and Spanish kind of place where you had to have about a dollar in change to open the door, as well as the Mexican highway rest area, spattered with everything and reeking enough to drive me to an "I'll wait another two hours" conclusion.

Seattle's problems are being blamed on toilet placement, in areas where there was already a high occurrence of drug or prostitution activity. Of course, Los Angeles hasn't had this issue, so really it's an interesting study in urban situational outcomes.

And, if you thought your city government made bad business deals, consider that the usual funding mechanism (advertising) was pre-thwarted by Seattle publicity rules but that their policy-makers went ahead and put the $5 million burden directly on the taxpayers.

I am glad Kansas City is not even thinking about this (as far as I know). We come to blows over bench placement, you know. "People will sit on them!"