City Toilets: The need is real

When it comes to bodily functions, sometimes there are urgent needs. So we are bothered by a City Council committee's rush to rid the streets of automated toilets before offering alternatives.

As a Seattle P-I report noted, the council's utilities committee agrees with a Seattle Public Utilities staff recommendation to get rid of the pricey, self-cleaning units that have proved to be magnets for crime. But a committee majority also wound up in favor of suggesting Mayor Greg Nickels and SPU cancel the toilets contract next month, rather than in January, when the staff proposed.

A quick contract end reportedly would save $300,000. And the toilets would be gone as a nuisance factor for neighbors and, we suppose, politicians. The drug and prostitution problems, though, likely will move, not vanish.

SPU wants the extra time to work on signing up businesses to provide additional access to restrooms. We've been skeptical about getting rid of the toilets. But if there's consensus the toilets must go, alternatives must first be in place.