Today in New York Waste

A quarter won’t buy you a cup of coffee in this town, but as of today it will buy you 15 minutes alone in the city’s first public commode. MadisonSquarePark has the bragging rights as the first location for the 20 Automatic Public Toilets (APT) planned for a city of 8 million+. These self-washing and wheelchair-assessable units designed by Grimshaw have a 60-second cleaning cycle after each use and will also be attended by cleaning personnel twice a day. One can only speculate that with a possible 15 minute-wait per person the line for the restroom could be as long as the line for the Shake Shack on a summer’s day. (Helpful hint: The bathroom at Wendy’s located across the street is upstairs!)

Spanish advertising house Cemusa, Inc. won the bid to install these toilets (which, like their other products, are designed to accommodate advertising). Not familiar with the name Cemusa? Many New Yorkers are already seeing the name on the first wave of the 3,300 new bus shelters and 330 newsstands that are being rolled out over the next several years as part of the city’s Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise.