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Toilets to Hit the Streets

Thu., September 22, 2005

A decade after promises, political bickering, lawsuits and inaction, New York City officials announced that freestanding, permanent public toilets will be placed on the city streets, according to the New York Times today.

The firm selected for the job, Cemusa Inc., has also been tapped to revamp the city’s bus shelters and newsstands, but the real excitement are those toilets. Heaven help the heavy drinker stranded in a business district of the city after the bars have closed. There’s nowhere to go, at least not legally; I’d wager many a New Yorker has an entertaining anecdote involving an alleyway or park involving the expulsion of bodily waste products. Savvy citydwellers know that, aside from bars and restaurants, which often crack down on non-patrons using their facilities, Manhattan’s top free-and-ubiquitous bathroom break locations are Starbucks and Barnes & Noble, but after midnight or so, those options no longer exist.

Barring potential legal skirmishes and a completed contract, which is scheduled to be signed by year-end, the new toilets are expected to appear on the streets as early as 2007, and they’ll be the pay models, apparently of the sort commonly found in European countries. Only 20 will be placed initially, but neither Cemusa nor the city are saying where. The usual questions will arise about the potential abuse of these things by homeless people, vandals and assorted miscreants, but I think this is a smart idea, particularly for those of us with small bladders.

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