Working or Not? The Puzzling Case of the City Hall Paper Towel Dispenser

By Eric Richardson
Published: Thursday, July 09, 2009, at 11:08AM

Eric Richardson [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — For months now, this paper towel dispenser in the 10th floor men's bathroom at City Hall has had a fairly existential question scrawled on it in Sharpie: "Replace or Fix It. It works?"

The answer is that both are right. The dispenser does work, and it is broken. It dispenses paper, but inside the gears grind horribly and the paper comes out extremely slowly.

It seems those who use the restroom have taken to skirting the issue entirely, and simply using the bare roll left on top of the dispenser.

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Comments

Ginny-Marie Case writes:

Should we sneak in a can of WD40?

# on Jul.09.2009 AT 11:18 AM

Tornadoes28 writes:

Wow, what a deep and meaningful article. Thank you for bringing this serious Downtown issue to our attention. I believe we should organize a rally and protest in order to have this unfortunate problem solved once and for all. I will proceed with a petition writing campaign to get this issue on the November ballot. This travesty must end.

# on Jul.09.2009 AT 02:47 PM

Zach Behrens writes:

Great post to add into the mix, Eric!

# on Jul.09.2009 AT 03:59 PM

Benjamin Pezzillo writes:

That graffiti has been there since last fall.

# on Jul.09.2009 AT 08:44 PM

David Kennedy writes:

How about adding the name and photo of the manager for maintaining this equipment? You could always ask them for comment, too. Maybe there's a legitimate reason. Maybe not.

# on Jul.10.2009 AT 08:55 AM

Karen writes:

This is the cutting edge journalism I expect from this blog.

I'm surprised its not in the Arts & Culture section.

# on Jul.10.2009 AT 10:42 AM