this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
474 points (100.0% liked)

politics

27115 readers
4123 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

New modular, self-cleaning public bathrooms could soon pop up across the city.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm of... a few minds on this.

I've used similar units in other cities. When they are well maintained, they are nice. The problem is that you are still dependent on city workers to refill the cleaning fluid and perform maintenance and... they pretty rapidly become essentially just any old portapotty.

With one key difference. They also tend to have lots of "anti-loitering" tech. So if you are prairie dogging it, you are fine. If you "kind of have to go" and would rather go now than risk needing to go four blocks later when you aren't near a toilet? You get "warning" flashing lights and the like and, in some models, a canned speaker alert. Not a huge issue to deal with if you are actually on the toilet but...

It still fulfills the actual goal of removing public toilets. Hurting unhoused people. Because it means they aren't a place to shelter on the REALLY bad nights ("oh, but it is really all about stopping those disgusting monsters from shooting up!") while also actively discouraging basic hygiene. Giving yourself a quick sponge bath with a sink and paper towels goes a long way but "good people" hate the idea of that so better add deterrents...

And, on a more selfish note: If you've ever queued up outside a restroom only to see the door lock for 30-360 seconds after the person you were waiting for gets out... yeah.

So yeah. As a privileged upper middle class person? This is great for me. And... that is all the vast majority of people need to feel good about themselves.

You're saying they shouldn't spend money on this? What alternative would you propose? In my mind this seems to fall pretty squarely in the good column.