Toilet Watch: Twenty Five Weeks And Counting
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Three weeks ago I declared Toilet Watch, having waited a good twenty-two weeks for the Pershing Square Automated Public Toilet (APT) to be brought into service. Walking by the APT today nothing has changed. We’re now at twenty-five weeks, just one week short of it being six months that the toilet has been in the ground but inoperative.
LA City Beat has an article this week talking about the advertising that’s part of the street furniture contract. The piece gives us this on the APTs:
The automatic public toilets that are a critical part of the program are also starting to appear. Their origins lie in a December 2003 City Council ordinance banning defecation and urination on public property – part of the council’s controversial Skid Row clean-up effort. These small, private bathrooms look a bit like old-fashioned phone booths and offer sanitation and seclusion for users. A new one is currently being tested on downtown’s Pershing Square; three more are due for Skid Row soon.
“Currently being tested,” eh? That’s one funny kind of test.
Toilet Watch is now at 4,224 hours.
All Toilet Watch coverage:
- 05/03/07 – Times Gives APTs Some Ink
- 04/26/07 – Blame DWP
- 04/25/07 – Come Ask Street Services about APTs
- 04/19/07 – Move On to the Next One
- 04/17/07 – Twenty Five Weeks and Counting
- 03/26/07 – Three More Weeks; APT Still Not Open
- 03/07/07 – Still Holding
- 01/22/07 – Still Waiting on Pershing Square APT
- 11/22/06 – Friends of the Sewer Welcome Toilets to Skid Row
This story belongs to the following topics:
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4th and Hill Toilet Still Inching Toward Service
June 03, 2008
-
DWP Still the Hold Up in Downtown Toilet
April 09, 2008
-
NYC Gets Into APT Game; Downtown Slowly Adding Its Own Units
January 11, 2008
Comments
I think I might submit a vacation request at work, and camp out until the damn thing is opened.
I think I havee two weeks of leave saved up.
I don’t think I could take the bird noise they pipe in for that long. I first noticed it walking by a few weeks ago, but since then hear it every time. It’s obnoxious.
bird noise?
Indeed. To scare pigeons away.
Isn't it interesting that way back, they could design an updated Pershing Square from a "defensive" planning approach, one which included the walls along the Hill Street frontage (facing east) which essentially say 'stay the hell out' plus the decomposed granite paved pissoir surrounding all of the statues and the cannon and the problems of old returned. Twelve million dollars down the drain. And that was acceptable, fashionable group think.
Now, we have a 'virtual' toilet! Someone (very high up) has got things under control in Pershing Square. Likely this is the same person who has been in control since day one, way back before the expenditure of said twelve million bucks, who exerted the MOST control and prevented any public review or input to the urban design disaster known as Pershing Square.
thanks for the pigeon explanation. still, fake nature noise seems incredibly un-modern.
Is it ever going to be used. 6months is ridicoulous. no spell check. I walk by it often. I wonder if its going to have lines. The newspaper guy is going to smell like crap when goes home from work. Two million for 4 toilets. 250K Gizzles.a piece. for crap? Summer ? for 250K at least have a enclosed LCD TV inside and out. Maybe a valet? instead the stupid bird noise. Music.
I am just worried about what will be going on in that toilet after it is open.
“I am just worried about what will be going on in that toilet after it is open.”
Nothing which does not already go on in the toilets of the hotels and businesses Downtown or the port-a-potties in Skid Row.
Many of the building and hotel security near Pershing Square have stories of drug addicts discovered using their stalls and, in some instances, fatal overdoses. I heard one merchant explain things got so bad at one of their locations, not in Downtown, they removed the doors from their stalls.
As I understand it, the Automatic Public Toilets have design mechanisms, such as timers, to inhibit nefarious use. It will certainly be interesting to see them demonstrated and I have no doubt when they are put into use there will be plenty of media coverage to answer these curiosities.
Hey, if I can sleep through half the stuff I hear in my sleep…I can sleep up the street.
People sleep all the time outside in our neighborhood. The callous person in me says - What the heck…one more person sleeping on the sidewalk can’t hurt anything.
I agree with Ginny - let’s stage a Potty-In and camp out until it works. I have a couple weeks of vacation saved up - whaddaya say?
it would be nice if every corner in downtown didn’t smell like pee.
why don’t they find a place to put a trough for homeless men to pee? it’s very common in Europe, ~1/100 the price, and would take care of 90% of the problem.
Maybe the Downtown BID can buy a giant Cat litter box and put it near Pershing Square. Modern cat litters are very clean and hygienic, and only need changing once a month.
I have an idea…I posted it on my website…ginnycase.com
For the last hour or so, two technicians have been hard at work on the APT at 5th and Hill. I went down to investigate and found the gentlemen who operate the adjacent news stand grilling one of the guys with questions. According to the tech, they are contracted to put a number of additional APTs “in the ground” over the coming months. As for ACTIVATING the toilets, the tech claimed it was up to Jan Perry’s office to then sign off on the final work order to put the APT into operation. The tech claimed that otherwise “their hands were tied” .
Ginny, I’ll be glad to wear that sign that reads “How many city departments does it take to turn on a toilet ?”
what’s up with pershing square? i mean i just saw old photos of the park that used to be there – you know the one with all the grass and trees. and i thought, “what was wrong with THAT?” does anyone else think that putting in several hundred tons of vertical and horizontal concrete, then painting it weird colors was NOT an improvement over what was once there?
Ive seen the old pics and yeah. damm 80s yuppies. must have been the cocaine. what s with Jan Perry? too bad we cant get her to be the first one to use the APT. Can we get a petition going or something. That would be great. Public officials hard at work. she has to go number 2.
I don’t know whether this should go under “Toilet Watch” or “The Times Are A little Behind” but I’m glad to see that the Times acknowledges your expertise on issues pertaining to Downtown in general and the APT situation in particular. Perhaps I’m being a bit optimistic, but I do hope the attention garnered by this article will stir things up enough with all parties implicated to FINALLY get all the installed APTs to begin functioning.


Nothing beats boots-on-the-ground, see-it-with-your-own-eyes reporting.
Dare I say the Beat is without a finger-on-pulse of this topic?