The mayor’s Street Access For Everyone (SAFE) committee is being pitched pricey space-age toilets by a Georgia firm this morning, despite Commissioner Randy Leonard already having ponied up $244,000 in the fall budget to get the job half done.
TWO EXELOO CONSULTANTS (ONE, SITTING): Address SAFE committee in sharp suits, with matching yellow ties, this morning.

In what appears to be a classic example of over-egging the cake, Atlanta firm Public Facilities and Services, Inc. (PFS) is pitching the $196,500 (EACH) Exeloo Orion to the mayor’s SAFE group this morning. If you think they’re expensive, that’s because they play Burt Bacharach 24-hours a day; (“I like that—people would hate it [and get out quickly],” commented District Attorney Laurie Abraham…) they have 48-different parameters that can be set remotely from the company’s Atlanta headquarters; they track, by computer, how many times “the seat has been pressed, giving you some very useful social data,” says the company’s spokesman; they’re made with marine-grade brushed stainless steel; “these are not designed for public use, they are designed for public abuse,” says the spokesman. They’re also manned by PFS, for a price—and if you want, you can even have a Coke machine! (They’re from Atlanta, after all).
EXELOO: Half loo, half space station…they even have an “escape hatch!!!”

The consultant just knocked “the Europeans,” for the amount of complexity they like to put in their toilets. Although what’s complex about a pissoir compared to these babies, which cost $2460 a month just to “service and maintain,” each, I’m not entirely sure. Here are the units Randy Leonard has just secured $244,000 to build five of in downtown Portland:
RANDY LEONARD’S PISSOIRS: “Resolving the immediate problem…”

“Randy’s approach is a utilitarian one to resolve the problem of people being forced to use the sides of buildings and urinate in the street,” says Leonard’s chief of staff, Ty Kovatch. “The SAFE committee’s toilets are serving a different need than Randy is trying to pursue. First of all, those [THE ORIONS] are manned stations, and as soon as the budget becomes more of a concern than it is now, the first thing that is going to get cut is the attendants for those stations.”

If the mayor’s SAFE committee votes to install any of these units in downtown Portland, will they be wasting more tax money? Or is five loos for just under a million bucks a bargain? I wonder if we’ll be looking into other, cheaper options? Are pissoirs enough?