WORRY-FREE: In the Exeloo outdoor toilets,
the seat is retracted and cleaned after each use,
while the interior is periodically disinfected.
Posted on 07/21/2004 11:43:07 AM PDT by Willie Green
Flush with success from projects that put decorative paving bricks on Main Street, expanded the downtown tunnel system and helped renovate the Rice Hotel, central Houston's redevelopment authority is turning its attention to matters more primal: public pay toilets.
"It evokes so much laughter," said Vicki Rivers, executive director of the Main Street Market Square Redevelopment Authority, "but it is a serious situation. My board members are very supportive of doing this."
Plumbing for five toilets was installed along Main Street during downtown's recent face-lift, and Rivers and her staff have started researching the array of self-flushing, self-sanitizing toilets on the market. But the project has been stalled by a bureaucratic clog: While Rivers' group, the business arm of a tax increment reinvestment zone, can buy the toilets, it can't pay to maintain them.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
ping
ALL RIGHT! I'm so excited. I can't wait to try them out!
I'll take a dump in a Big Gulp cup before I ever use a public toilet in downtown Houston.
They rid the streets of squeegee guys to stand behind the wall and clean the terlet seats.
Flushing our tax dollars down the drain again. :(
You can buy a lot of Port-a-potties and pay a lot of sanitation crews for $150,000.
Looks like the Rats have a new campaign headquarters. ;)
I ran into one of those high tech automated toilets in France three years ago. An affair to remember.
We were walking around the city of Tours when I had a sudden strong need to go. Too much French food for lunch probably.
I spotted one of the automated toilets and put my money in the slot. Inside was a toilet seat and a tray immediately below it. Both were wet, apparently from the automated sanitizing wash that these toilets do. There was no recognizable typical toilet bowl, as I remember. There were no instructions anywhere or at least none in English.
OK, what do I do now? Do I do my business on the tray? That would be difficult but perhaps I could accomplish it. Would it stay there in plain sight when I left? Would I get covered with sanitizing spray? All the while my body was telling me I needed to go. Now!
I decided it was wiser to take my business elsewhere, despite my urgent need. I opened the door. Nothing happened to the toilet seat and tray. They were still sticking out of the wall.
There were two girls immediately outside waiting to get in. I was glad I left without using the facility, such as it was.
Fortunately, we had noticed a museum a couple of blocks back. I hurried back there, paid their entry fee, and headed to the restroom.
I'm convinced the French put these things out on the street to humiliate unsuspecting American tourists.
I never thought I would say this, but I am now ashamed I come from Houston. We have schools that despairately need text books and we are buying robo johns!
Free tokens for the bums and kids?
Don't mess with Texas!
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