Seattle to sell... toilets on eBay?
The City of Seattle is removing five automated toilets after spening $5 million to install them because they came overrun with drug users and transients.
Sounds logical, but there' more: They're selling them on eBay. Seriously.
The units were put up for sale Wednesday afternoon on eBay, with a starting bid set by the city at $89,000 apiece.
The question of why in the world anyone would want to be a toilet that had to be closed because it was overrun with prostitutes, drug users and homeless people is beyond me and never really addressed in the story.
But, according to the story, some drug users won't even go into them:
“I’m not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there,� said one homeless woman, Veronyka Cordner, nodding toward the toilet behind Pike Place Market. “But I won’t even go inside that thing now. It’s disgusting.�
It's interesting that they caused such a problem... the toilets were supposed to clean themselves, with automatic powerwashers and the like.
While this sounds funny, check out this news release from the City of Seattle. They're not joking:
The toilets will be removed from service — locked and fenced in — on Aug. 1. The units are expected to be physically removed by their new owner sometime later in August.In May, the Seattle City Council ordered Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to cancel its contract for the automatic toilets, as soon as possible. The Council’s action followed an SPU report recommending removal of the toilets. Although the automatic units have been well used, the report said, they are also unattended — allowing them to be used for drug use and dealing, alcohol use and prostitution.
In 2001, overriding a mayoral veto, the Seattle City Council directed SPU to contract for the lease, installation, and maintenance of five automatic toilets, to meet the need for increased access to public toilets in Seattle’s downtown and urban centers. The high-tech self-cleaning units were intended as an attractive, “step up� from the handful of traditional portable public toilets they would replace.
I especially like the inclusion of "overriding a mayoral veto" in the release. You have to make sure the people know who dreamt up this whole idea in the first place, you know?