politics

Last time I was in NYC I had a hell of a time finding somewhere to piss. Ended up going to saks 5th avenue. Tried on a $5000 jacket I could never afford when I was there. Great jacket.

Mamdani going for the NIPL-strategy: Noticably Improve People's Lives

This is the socialism they tried to warn us about.

In the US they will more than likely be these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Loo

My city has a few, they're generally better than those plastic portable toilets with the blue liquid plus require much less maintenance once installed.

Saw these in Paris while visiting. Always thought that every major city should have them. Was hella convenient!

Another W for Mamdani.

What?! Is he trying to improve the lives of those that don’t normally have easy bathroom access? How dare he! Government money should be a spent on improving his self image and ego!

All fun and games until someone gets stuck in the autowash...

We have several types around in larger Helsinki, they are OK. And free. Of course they still require maintenance, but having been in cities that have no public toilets at all, this is simply a Good Thing.

Another commenter was complaining about certain evil extra features, but apparently not all manufacturers do that, case in point above.

Remember in the 90s I think, when they tried to put the self cleaning Japanese toilets and monopolize on them?

How the fuck does a bathroom clean itself

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.

I was hoping to read more about the self cleaning process, but it sounds like it's just an antibacterial spray down after every use. I wonder what happens when there are physical items left about. Toilet paper on the floor, syringes left behind, etc. How do you keep the seat from being wet every time someone goes in? If they aren't hooked up to water and sewer lines, how frequently are they manually maintained? I'm not saying this isn't a good thing, just that I have a lot of questions that aren't answered in the article.

Edit: speech to text fucked my shit up