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Editorial
Techie Toilet Plan Falls Far Short
The state of outdoor restrooms in Downtown has been a disaster for years. Unfortunately, the latest step in the plan to provide expensive public toilets will do little to rectify the situation. While well-intentioned by some, it's rather like seeing a man who has lost an arm and offering him a Band-Aid.
The problem is poorly understood, and solutions are poorly executed. Not only have there been virtually no viable public toilets for homeless people, there are none for tourists either. Ridiculous on both fronts. If you come to town to see Disney Hall or another sight, you'd better keep a cab handy if you think you are going to have to go. Or be prepared to charm a shop owner - not a reliable solution to a problem that needs one.
Los Angeles Downtown News last week reported that CBS/Decaux is installing four high-tech automatic public toilets in Downtown, including three on Skid Row, at a total cost of $1 million. CBS/Decaux and the city like to say that the venture is privately funded, which it is, technically, with the company's costs covered by advertising sales on street furniture in other communities. But we think the city has still been sold a bill of goods because neither problem (tourists nor homeless) is truly solved and won't be for the foreseeable future.
It's good that many of the port-a-potties in Skid Row have been removed - they were notoriously used for prostitution, drug sales and even, in some shocking occasions, for living. The APTs will, we are asked to believe, prevent that because they are patrolled four times a day by CBS/Decaux staff, and because the devices are self-cleaning; after each use the door closes and they are pressure-washed, disinfected and dried. Additionally, sensors indicate when there is trouble (one wonders how they define "trouble"), and the door automatically opens after 20 minutes, meaning people theoretically can't take up residence in there.
The street furniture plan, powered through the Byzantine maze of City Hall by heavy hitting lobbyists, dazzled many levels of city bureaucracy as well as the City Council. But the plan was always seriously flawed, a boondoggle at best. The APTs are way behind schedule (three years, according to one Board of Public Works source), there are far too few of them, and we don't think the maintenance schedule of four times a day will prevent their being misused on Skid Row, where hundreds of people are looking for places to smoke crack, shoot up or turn tricks.
As we say, the process has fallen short since the beginning. It takes years to wrangle approval for CBS/Decaux's street furniture and APTs as the company tries to get the green light from nine city departments and other groups - it's way too cumbersome. The APTs can also be stymied by businesses that, understandably, don't want public restrooms near them.
Downtown needs a more forceful and quicker effort, one that does a lot more than take three years to come up with a paltry four public toilets. CBS/Decaux's track record doesn't come close to meeting the real needs of the neighborhood.
Even if these techie toilets are "privately funded," we can't help remembering that the real problem with all public toilets, whether they cost a quarter of a million dollars each or are outhouses, is that they need to be monitored. Other major cities have figured this out. Why aren't we acting on the obvious? Wouldn't it be better to have, say, 10 much simpler toilets, meaning two sets of five or five sets of two with staff (perhaps from an organization such as homeless employment entity Chrysalis) to monitor them 24/7? Either way it would cost Decaux a helluva lot less per stall and serve the public much better.
page 4, 12/11/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
The problem is poorly understood, and solutions are poorly executed. Not only have there been virtually no viable public toilets for homeless people, there are none for tourists either. Ridiculous on both fronts. If you come to town to see Disney Hall or another sight, you'd better keep a cab handy if you think you are going to have to go. Or be prepared to charm a shop owner - not a reliable solution to a problem that needs one.
Los Angeles Downtown News last week reported that CBS/Decaux is installing four high-tech automatic public toilets in Downtown, including three on Skid Row, at a total cost of $1 million. CBS/Decaux and the city like to say that the venture is privately funded, which it is, technically, with the company's costs covered by advertising sales on street furniture in other communities. But we think the city has still been sold a bill of goods because neither problem (tourists nor homeless) is truly solved and won't be for the foreseeable future.
It's good that many of the port-a-potties in Skid Row have been removed - they were notoriously used for prostitution, drug sales and even, in some shocking occasions, for living. The APTs will, we are asked to believe, prevent that because they are patrolled four times a day by CBS/Decaux staff, and because the devices are self-cleaning; after each use the door closes and they are pressure-washed, disinfected and dried. Additionally, sensors indicate when there is trouble (one wonders how they define "trouble"), and the door automatically opens after 20 minutes, meaning people theoretically can't take up residence in there.
The street furniture plan, powered through the Byzantine maze of City Hall by heavy hitting lobbyists, dazzled many levels of city bureaucracy as well as the City Council. But the plan was always seriously flawed, a boondoggle at best. The APTs are way behind schedule (three years, according to one Board of Public Works source), there are far too few of them, and we don't think the maintenance schedule of four times a day will prevent their being misused on Skid Row, where hundreds of people are looking for places to smoke crack, shoot up or turn tricks.
As we say, the process has fallen short since the beginning. It takes years to wrangle approval for CBS/Decaux's street furniture and APTs as the company tries to get the green light from nine city departments and other groups - it's way too cumbersome. The APTs can also be stymied by businesses that, understandably, don't want public restrooms near them.
Downtown needs a more forceful and quicker effort, one that does a lot more than take three years to come up with a paltry four public toilets. CBS/Decaux's track record doesn't come close to meeting the real needs of the neighborhood.
Even if these techie toilets are "privately funded," we can't help remembering that the real problem with all public toilets, whether they cost a quarter of a million dollars each or are outhouses, is that they need to be monitored. Other major cities have figured this out. Why aren't we acting on the obvious? Wouldn't it be better to have, say, 10 much simpler toilets, meaning two sets of five or five sets of two with staff (perhaps from an organization such as homeless employment entity Chrysalis) to monitor them 24/7? Either way it would cost Decaux a helluva lot less per stall and serve the public much better.
page 4, 12/11/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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