Smell you later, self-cleaning toilets
More than six months and 100 blog posts ago, I wrote a lengthy rant complaining about the crime and homelessness plaguing Broadway on Capitol Hill. One of my key criticisms (which had also been pointed out by someone else in a letter to the editor published at SLOG) was of the self-cleaning public restroom, located just past Bonney Watson Funeral Home and Seattle Central Community College.Now the issue is back in the spotlight, after Seattle Public Utilities announced yesterday its recommendation that the City Council approve removal of the five self-cleaning crappers scattered around the city. Yup...It took them four years, but city officials have finally realized what most of us who walk the streets have known from day one: self-cleaning toilets are a nice idea, but one that fails miserably upon execution.
You can't blame the city for trying new things, though...especially when their ideas have been proven to work elsewhere. From The Times:
Council President Richard Conlin said he voted to install the toilets after seeing their success in Europe, where "everybody uses them."The problem is that in all its old world glory, Europe is far more disciplined, and in some ways more civilized, than the United States. Issues that have worked well for them (socialized healthcare, marijuana decriminalization, a fully-functional and near flawless railway system) are simply unwanted or ineffective - and sometimes both - in America.
"They are a middle-class phenomenon," he said. "We thought we could impose that."
Plus, homelessness isn't nearly as prevalent across the pond: according to the United Nations, the entire European Union has around 3 million homeless...compared to the United States, where government figures suggest as many as 3.5 million within our borders alone. While I value the city's willingness to experiment with new sanitation options, we cannot realistically expect that a system proven effective in a culture vastly different from our own would have the same positive outcomes across the board.
Of course, don't tell that to Tim Harris of Real Change, whose idealistic approach to homeless equality is a prime example of how dangerous human emotion can be when we allow it to trample over reason. Harris' argument? That not only do we need these five silver dens of debauchery...we need more public toilets. Quoted in The Times:
Removing toilets would force people to relieve themselves in streets and alleys, Harris said.At his blog, Harris continues the verbal diarrhea:
"If you don't provide alternatives and viable alternatives, then it's not fair to blame people for activities that they have little choice but to engage in," he said.
I actually went into this whole conspiratorial rant about how they'll take the toilets away, and then when the whole downtown smells like a Belltown alley on a hot summer day and there's shit on every doorstep, we'll hear all about the filthy, disgusting, homeless people who are too lazy to even find their way to the bathroom.Maybe she didn't use it because it's total nonsense. Tim, I know you mean well, but you're approaching this from an angle that values the homeless perspective above all: above safety for the greater community, above fiscal responsibility and above respect for urban progress. That may be a feasible position for an individual such as yourself to hold...but it is a dangerous one for an entire community.
But for some reason she didn't use that.
Then again, Harris' vision of a putrid downtown core might have some unexpected benefits. If the people of Seattle were faced with unsanitary conditions at the hands of bums who treat the city as their personal playground, maybe we would all wake up to the fact that we can't allow this subculture of homelessness that we've tolerated thus far to continue prospering.
If Seattle really wants to grow into its own, Mayor Nickels should call up Rudy Giuliani and ask him what he did to get rid of the homeless during his time as New York City's mayor. I'm guessing it wasn't centered around the widespread installation of self-cleaning toilets.
