Seattle sells 5 of its troubled toilets on eBay

[WriteDown]

Source: AP

SEATTLE (AP) -- Seattle's five problem-plagued public toilets could be yours if you're flush.

City officials decided to pull the plug on the multimillion-dollar self-cleaning toilet stalls and instead put them on the auction site eBay.

Starting bids are $89,000 apiece.

Neighbors and city-commissioned analysts said the unisex facilities attracted drug users and prostitutes, and were less cost-effective than regular public restrooms....


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ODD_SEATTLE_TOILETS?SITE=TXDAM&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME

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This is why we can't have nice things :)

[Tab]

1. What, were these built by Bechtel or Halliburton?

$5 million for a single toilet makes the $600 toilet seat look cheap.

[WriteDown]

2. My question is...

Why can they make these an effective solution in Germany and not Seattle??

[dipsydoodle]

8. Same is true of London

They work fine there as far as I'm aware.

[WriteDown]

9. I've never understood why these problems...

are exclusive to the U.S. If its a problem, then they need to be monitored more closely.

[Schema Thing]

3. Hahah! I happened to be in Seattle the day they opened those for business

I was actually interviewed inside of one by a local radio reporter.

good times.

[Tab]

5. I hope he waited until you were finished going

Pretty embarassing otherwise.

[Schema Thing]

13. we went in as a group. They are surprisingly roomy

[tridim]

4. I remember lots of us predicted these things would fail

Rube Goldberg machines usually aren't very reliable when placed in the wild.

[cliffordu]

6. Shit.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. I shit you not

the last time I was in Seattle I saw a homeless guy pissing on the side of one of these things, evidently too lazy to take the three steps needed to get to the door or too far gone to realize where he was.

[WriteDown]

12. I am glad I didn't see this....

Would've made my blood boil.

[maxsolomon]

10. too many homeless & drug addicts competing with tourists

for only 5 of these to work - & the use & cleaning cycle was interminable.

much much faster to go into the pike place public restroom & take a leak. but you just can't shoot up in there like you used to... :sarcasm:

[LiveLiberally]

11. These toilets were installed years ago in many French cities...

I've used them many times in different cities and have never seen them vandalized. HOWEVER, they are not free. As of last spring, they cost .50 euro (or about 75 cents) per use. Also, after about 10 minutes the doors automatically open, which tends to discourage alternative pursuits...

[Tab]

14. So many bad puns

so little bandwidth