But it is a feat of engineering, subby. What else could it be when you can flush that much cash without clogging the drain?

the city's director of street furniture

I want this job.

Airfoilsguy: the city's director of street furniture

I want this job.

Didn't you get a heads-up about the opening?

But the toilet sat more than 2 inches above the sidewalk, a violation of wheelchair-accessibility law.

The toilet is coin operated too. What about people who get their welfare or unemployment payments on a debit card?

What about children who don't have any money?

What about the homeless? The fee for using the toilet unduly burdens them. They should have a reduced rate program for the homeless.

/Thank goodness server and electrical rooms don't have to be handicapped accessible.......yet.

Crosshair: Thank goodness server and electrical rooms don't have to be handicapped accessible

There are already retards in the server room.

whizbang: Crosshair: Thank goodness server and electrical rooms don't have to be handicapped accessible

There are already retards in the server room.

Halon doesn't count...

"...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

But soon after the digging began, workers discovered that the sewer lines were not where they appeared on engineering diagrams. They modified the toilet's plumbing, received city approval for the changes, lowered the unit into place, and bricked over the site. But the toilet sat more than 2 inches above the sidewalk, a violation of wheelchair-accessibility law.

You know, I could probably have gotten a couple of the guys in the Home Depot, a bag of cement, and a day or two to make a two inch ramp for a lot less than they paid to dig the whole damn thing out and rebrick it again.

eddyatwork: a day or two to make a two inch ramp for a lot less

You'll have to work long, hard hours...

Pay the Man: "...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

"Thankfully for taxpayers, a city contract stipulates that all costs, including any overruns, are paid by Wall Decaux Inc."

the toilet better have a robotic arm that gives me a happy ending.

ducTape: Pay the Man: "...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

"Thankfully for taxpayers, a city contract stipulates that all costs, including any overruns, are paid by Wall Decaux Inc."

Till they cry poor mouth to the Feds and get a HUGE bailout!

Pay the Man: "...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

FTA... Thankfully for taxpayers, a city contract stipulates that all costs, including any overruns, are paid by Wall Decaux Inc., which builds Boston's toilets and bus shelters in exchange for the right to sell ads on them. The toilets typically cost $250,000


but why let facts get in the way of another Boston wasting tax money story

ripple123: the toilet better have a robotic arm that gives me a happy ending.

Happy ending toilets will be society's last invention.

I hear that it can flush shiat off the ceiling.

Pay the Man: "...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

Reading is difficult for you, huh?

Thankfully for taxpayers, a city contract stipulates that all costs, including any overruns, are paid by Wall Decaux Inc., which builds Boston's toilets and bus shelters in exchange for the right to sell ads on them. The toilets typically cost $250,000.

"We don't pay a penny," said Michael Galvin, Boston's chief of public property and construction management. "Nothing. And we haven't from Day One."

As for cost overruns, that's building in Boston. We have three hundred year old sewer and water lines. And you think any maps for those are accurate? Hell, half the reason the Big Dig took so long was that they would start digging, hit a bunch of pipes, and have to stop to figure out if they would explode when you poke 'em.

"our technicians are testing it"

ummm...for what? Its a farking toilet. Does it have water in it? Does it flush poop and refill with water when flushed? Yes?, test done.

"It is the seventh city toilet out of a planned 10 that have been built since Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed to bring such a fundamental amenity to Boston in 1997, after admiring a public toilet in San Francisco."


I'm going to venture to say the mayor is gay.

The big dig was probably closer to $22b.

$300k for something like this in Mass. is not surprising, and actually sounds like we got off cheap.

"our technicians are testing it"

Toilet tester? Can I get paid for this?

jbrooks544: The big dig was probably closer to $22b.

Dear Mr. or Ms. jbrooks544:

Since your 10:40 AM post, we have revised our cost estimates to $25b.

Please make out the check to Bechtel/ Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"coin-operated toilet"


Didn't tax money already pay for this?

I know this is Fark, but still it is rather sad that out of 20 posts, only 1 farker has figured out that NONE OF THIS COSTS TAX PAYERS A DIME.

I mean, damn, I don't always RTFA, but at least I read the damn thing before I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about.

/and YES before reading, I assumed tax payers dropped the soap, as well.

darthgarlic: "coin-operated toilet"


Didn't tax money already pay for this?

Only tourists will be using it, so fark em.

Congratulations, Massholes, on your new toilet, and welcome to the 19th century and indoor plumbing.

FTFA "The toilets typically cost $250,000."


I'm much less impressed

Forcing people to pay money to take a dump? You've gotta be a Masshole to support that.

Now, the city is preparing for the latest addition to its pantheon of construction marvels, the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush.

The goddam, incredibly overpaid, under worked Boston bureaucrats sitting in their nice comfy air-conditioned offices are bringing back that abomination known as the PAY TOILET.

And the scumbags are flushed with pride over it.

And so, now, the incredibly overpaid, under worked bureaucrats in other cities will be saying "me too" and they'll do the same thing everywhere else.

And congratulate themselves.

Wow. For that price I was picturing a really nice highway-rest stop type facility. But it's really nothing more than a glorified porta-potty. Somebody, somewhere is stuffing their pockets...

jbrooks544: $300k for something like this in Mass. is not surprising, and actually sounds like we got off cheap.

Hello. Do you work for the company who is paying for this toilet? This is very nice to hear from you! What is it like working for this company that is mentioned as the payer of this toilet in the article?

you realize that it's a little more complex than just putting a commode in the street, right?

So they rebuilt the whole thing instead of putting in a 2 inch ramp?

Patients at my hospital spend their first rounds of therapy in new chairs learning how to hop curbs. I don't see the big deal, even a power chair can hump it up two inches.

bentley57: Toilet tester? Can I get paid for this?

There was an ad in the classified to be their number 2 guy...

/I'll be here all weekend
//lucky for you it is already Sunday

hosalabad: Patients at my hospital spend their first rounds of therapy in new chairs learning how to hop curbs. I don't see the big deal, even a power chair can hump it up two inches.

It isn't all the handicapped people who are OK with having small obstacles to overcome that you have to worry about, it is the handful that see it as an opportunity to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act that you need to look out for.

But yea.. put a farking ramp in, morons.

skinink: Nice. $300,000 for a toilet and all the attention it gets; meanwhile Downtown Boston is quickly turning into a no man's land.

I do not understand this law, but I can see the two sides of it. One side says that it is a bad thing because Boston should let men and women both go to the downtown and these things. This would be the discrimination for only women to use the toilet in the area but maybe it is the ladys room I think.

The other side of this says that this may not be a bad thing. Women do the shopping downtown and they are also not as messy as men who spit on the streets. Yuck! So maybe this is a good thing.

I am not to be the judge of this but I wonder about the legal parts of making no men to go downtown. What do you think the Fark.com?

ducTape: Pay the Man: "...the opening on the waterfront of a coin-operated toilet that took more than two years and $300,000 to bring from drawing board to reality. And it still hasn't had its first flush."

Sure it did... $300,000.00 of taxpayer money gone.

"Thankfully for taxpayers, a city contract stipulates that all costs, including any overruns, are paid by Wall Decaux Inc."


Just have the coins activate a camera for a kinky porn site and it will cover all costs.

Meh. Penny-pinching conservatives point to the big-dig as major failure. The failure was in the independent private contractors that greedily grifted the people of Massachusetts, proving once and for all that such large public works should be done wholly by the government. The Dig itself has been a pretty huge success as seen by the lack of ugly highway viaducts running right through downtown. Every large city should initiate projects like the Big Dig to take their freeways off the surface of their cities, opening up more property for public development like intermodal transportation hubs in the center of their cities where high speed intercity rail can meet a rapid mass transit system. Such transit malls have been a big success in places like Minneapolis and Seattle.

Though it ended over budget and radically off schedule, the Big Dig has still been successful. A $300k bathroom is as bad as the $30 bottles of ketchup the George HW Bush White House was racking up.

There are a helluva lot of people here that need to RTFA, apparently.

Hey Subby, we here resent that comment. It's a big leaky hole in the ground!

maybe I missed something....but do these not work?


/only read part of the article
//thought the writing was crappy

Shpubba1: There are a helluva lot of people here that need to RTFA, apparently.

I don't know what this means to me. I am sorry.

meow said the dog: Shpubba1: There are a helluva lot of people here that need to RTFA, apparently.

I don't know what this means to me. I am sorry.

He means you need to read the featured articule.

windego999: meow said the dog: Shpubba1: There are a helluva lot of people here that need to RTFA, apparently.

I don't know what this means to me. I am sorry.

He means you need to read the featured articule reticule.

I'm more surprised that it's coin toilet. I never understood why it was ok to charge people so they wouldn't crap they're pants.

lexslamman: large public works should be done wholly by the government

Big Gov should start hiring? to do this without private contractors?

the CA/T placed 3.8 million cubic yards of concrete - the equivalent of 2,350 acres, one foot thick - and excavated more than 16 million cubic yards of soil.

lexslamman: Meh. Penny-pinching conservatives point to the big-dig as major failure. The failure was in the independent private contractors that greedily grifted the people of Massachusetts, proving once and for all that such large public works should be done wholly by the government.

Those companies grifted all of the U.S., not just Massachusetts. Tip O'Neill was instrumental in having the Feds fund a good portion of the Big Dig. It wasn't until that 2.5 billion dollar project had ballooned up to $14.5 billion that Federal money was cut off.

So please come to Massachusetts sometime to visit the leaky underwater tunnel you all paid for.

Everyone needs to CLICK the link and READ...

This isn't costing tax payers one dime!!!! (Unless you have to go, then it'll cost you.)

And people say Chicago is the corrupt city. It's like Boston never even happened or something.

You have completed Wonder: The automated toilet

+1 happiness of drones
-2 gold per turn