Toilet Watch

4th and Hill Toilet Still Inching Toward Service

By Eric Richardson — June 03, 2008 — 4 Comments

Fresh Cement at the 4th/Hill APT Eric Richardson

A fresh patch of concrete next to the still-not-functional Automated Public Toilet (APT) at 4th and Hill is visual proof that getting the unit in service wasn't just a matter of turning on the electricity.

That was the report we were given back in January, with an up and running toilet said to be just weeks away. A check back in April found no progress. — Continued Inside...


DWP Still the Hold Up in Downtown Toilet

By Eric Richardson — April 09, 2008 — 3 Comments

4th/Hill APT Eric Richardson

|Photo Gallery| The Automated Public Toilet (APT) at 4th and Hill has been ready to go for nearly three months, but remains out of service waiting for the city's Department of Water & Power (DWP) to come turn on the juice.

Lance Oishi manages the APTs for the city's Bureau of Street Services. In January, Oishi was happy to report that the 4th and Hill unit had passed inspections and was now just waiting for DWP to flip the switch. Yesterday, I asked Oishi what had happened. "We're still at that same point," he said. — Continued Inside...


NYC Gets Into APT Game; Downtown Slowly Adding Its Own Units

By Eric Richardson — January 11, 2008
4 Comments

4th/Hill APT

New York City opened its first Automated Public Toilet yesterday in Madison Square Park. The city plans to open twenty of the units over the next two years. While Downtown L.A. has several operating APTs, each has taken its time in coming online. Ground was broken for the APT at 4th & Hill back in April, and the unit has been in the ground since mid-summer...


4th & Hill APT Still Waiting for Service

By Eric Richardson — November 19, 2007
12 Comments

4th/Hill APT

Walking around today I noticed that the Automated Public Toilet at 4th & Hill has still not yet entered service. The site was fenced off for foundation work back in April, and the APT itself has been on-site since summer. It's good to see that even though the Pershing Square APT has been up and running since May, and Skid Row's APTs are all up and functional...


Even an Operating APT Has Issues

By Eric Richardson — June 03, 2007
4 Comments

Not Quite Right

It would be nice to think that once an APT gets to the point where it's operational, we can cross it off the Toilet Watch list. Not quite so, though. Even $250,000 toilets have maintenance issues. A few weeks back Celia posted about finding the APT out of order, and today the door seemed to have lost its will to open and close. The unit wasn't displaying...


Pershing Square APT Activated?

By Eric Richardson — May 17, 2007
9 Comments

100_9911

I have a report this morning that the Pershing Square Automated Public Toilet is now open for business. Walking home from the gym, I witnessed history in the making. With the help of a serviceman, a man deposited a quarter in the Public Toilet and the door magically opened! I didn't stick around to interview the man afterward, but it was epic, nonetheless...


Boston Globe Runs the APT Story

By Eric Richardson — May 13, 2007
6 Comments

Part of the fun of something like the recent Times piece on Downtown APTs is watching to see how that story spreads. Earlier in the week I noted that Newsweek grabbed my quote for its perspectives page. Today the Boston Globe runs the story in its pages. Since it's just a straight run of the Times piece there's no mention that Boston's had similar toilets...


Toilet Watch: Newsweek Picks Up the APT Issue

By Eric Richardson — May 08, 2007
3 Comments

I was at the DLANC Board meeting tonight when my Dad called. Sitting down back in Michigan after a late softball game he picks up a copy of Newsweek and what does he find but me getting quoted. For its perspective page, a weekly snapshot of quotations from around the country, the magazine picked up my quote from the recent Times APT article. "If we want...


Toilet Watch: Times Gives APTs Some Ink

By Eric Richardson — May 03, 2007
13 Comments

Cara DiMassa runs a story in today's Times about the slow pace of APT installation Downtown. For those of you who have been following along here it's not new information, but it's very good to see the story get a little wider play. Cara even mentions our Toilet Watch, though she doesn't name the site itself: Even some supporters are becoming frustrated with...


Toilet Watch: Blame DWP

By Eric Richardson — April 26, 2007
4 Comments

As I mentioned yesterday, Lance Oishi of Street Services attended a DLANC meeting last night to come talk about the street furniture program and specifically the APTs. He provided some fascinating insight into what's been going on and what's been dragging this process out. A basic summary: DWP is trouble. Lance was extremely straight-forward about the frustration...