Moratorium aside, most of the H Street take-out food establishments don't offer public restrooms. After consuming a nice lunch and a big soda, where does one go when nature calls?
I've seen modern, self cleaning public restroom pods in Seattle, however I'm not familiar with the pros and cons of such facilities.
Yes, the inevitable racial angle - "Wealthy whites treading on poor blacks." Here's a newsflash for all you H Street reporters out there hoping to capitalize on this “angle” in your rag (Attention, Paul Schwartzman…are you listening, Mr. Schwartzman?). Buying and immediately consuming single bottles of alcohol on the street does not represent “black culture” and, therefore, taking action to curtail such behavior does not equate to “treading on poor blacks.” Yeah, I know, you've seen enough BET videos to convince you otherwise and you'll be damned if a bunch of rich whites disenfranchise the poor black guy you saw enjoying his Old E near 8th and H during your field trip to the neighborhood, but that's really not the case. As Beatty alluded to in the article, the folks supporting this ban are black, white, rich, middle class, poor, etc.
Such self cleaning toilet pods are all over Europe, too. The downside is that they occaisionally trap children in them when they self clean, and the children die. They've installed sensors on most that usually prevent this, though.
The other downside, however, is the reason we're not going to see them in DC in the forseeable future: the upfront capital expenditure is pretty heavy. Eventually, assuming that you're charging for them, you'll recoup that, but DC doesn't have the spare cash floating around to drop on toilets.
There's always the private angle, but I doubt Joe Englert thinks it would increase business enough to merit the cost.
A significant additional obstacle, for H St, at least, is that there won't be any will to put these in before all of the street and sidewalk work has been done, since they'd just have to be moved anyway.
Metro experimented with the self-cleaning restroom "capsules" a few years back. They were in the process of pulling the restrooms out because they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (entrance wasn't wide enough for a wheelchair and the ramp was too steep). Then 9/11 happened and suddenly public restrooms became potential terrorist bomb threats. I don't see the self-cleaning restrooms coming to DC any time soon, unfortunately.
I agree that the article The Hill ran was snarky at best. It turned a public safety issue into a race issue unnecessarily, and inflammatorily. It never fails to amaze me how those that don't actually live with the problem assume that all black people love drinking in public and sales of singles. Some of the most ardent advocates for neighborhood stabilization are black, in this neighborhood and others.
6 comments:
Moratorium aside, most of the H Street take-out food establishments don't offer public restrooms. After consuming a nice lunch and a big soda, where does one go when nature calls?
I've seen modern, self cleaning public restroom pods in Seattle, however I'm not familiar with the pros and cons of such facilities.
Yes, the inevitable racial angle - "Wealthy whites treading on poor blacks." Here's a newsflash for all you H Street reporters out there hoping to capitalize on this “angle” in your rag (Attention, Paul Schwartzman…are you listening, Mr. Schwartzman?). Buying and immediately consuming single bottles of alcohol on the street does not represent “black culture” and, therefore, taking action to curtail such behavior does not equate to “treading on poor blacks.” Yeah, I know, you've seen enough BET videos to convince you otherwise and you'll be damned if a bunch of rich whites disenfranchise the poor black guy you saw enjoying his Old E near 8th and H during your field trip to the neighborhood, but that's really not the case. As Beatty alluded to in the article, the folks supporting this ban are black, white, rich, middle class, poor, etc.
Such self cleaning toilet pods are all over Europe, too. The downside is that they occaisionally trap children in them when they self clean, and the children die. They've installed sensors on most that usually prevent this, though.
The other downside, however, is the reason we're not going to see them in DC in the forseeable future: the upfront capital expenditure is pretty heavy. Eventually, assuming that you're charging for them, you'll recoup that, but DC doesn't have the spare cash floating around to drop on toilets.
There's always the private angle, but I doubt Joe Englert thinks it would increase business enough to merit the cost.
A significant additional obstacle, for H St, at least, is that there won't be any will to put these in before all of the street and sidewalk work has been done, since they'd just have to be moved anyway.
Wouldn't that be nice, though?
Metro experimented with the self-cleaning restroom "capsules" a few years back. They were in the process of pulling the restrooms out because they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (entrance wasn't wide enough for a wheelchair and the ramp was too steep). Then 9/11 happened and suddenly public restrooms became potential terrorist bomb threats. I don't see the self-cleaning restrooms coming to DC any time soon, unfortunately.
I agree that the article The Hill ran was snarky at best. It turned a public safety issue into a race issue unnecessarily, and inflammatorily. It never fails to amaze me how those that don't actually live with the problem assume that all black people love drinking in public and sales of singles. Some of the most ardent advocates for neighborhood stabilization are black, in this neighborhood and others.
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