Photographed by Martha Williams
I really like the Piedmont Park Robotic Rest room.
Not as a result of it is fairly or nice. A fundamental inexperienced and stainless-steel field, this public toilet was designed to be vandal-resistant, totally automated and self-cleaning. It was a futuristic sight when it was put in in 2008, contained in the majestic Charles Allen Gate. From the skin, it seems like a misplaced elevator. Inside, a Parks and Recreation Division worker informed me, “It seems like a jail rest room.”
After 16 years, the unit is exhibiting its age. Doorways open and shut, generally auto-locking with nobody inside. The sensors have misplaced their sensitivity, so getting cleaning soap, water and bathroom paper is a sport of charades. A sprightly piano soundtrack pauses and resumes. The ground is barely flooded, however the bathroom works.
There may be all the time a line to make use of the robotic toilet. In any case different Piedmont Park restrooms lock for the night time at 6 p.m., this is likely one of the solely free bathrooms in Atlanta’s main public park. On a latest spring night, the park was crowded with match younger Atlantans enjoying Frisbee, jogging and picnicking. Eight or 9 folks lined up for the robotic toilet, chatting patiently. Behind them, a row of 20 zip-tied port-a-potties await a weekend of festivities. The place else can these folks go?
That is how the robotic toilet has earned an endearing nickname and on-line respect over time. Critiques on Google (common ranking: 3.7 stars) and Yelp (3.3 stars) learn like essays, confessions, and dramatic monologues. One reviewer was grateful she might take her canine inside. One other praised the air-con. Others shrugged however nonetheless confirmed assist: “It is positively a rest room. Protected and clear.” At press time, it was quantity 4 on Yelp’s listing of Atlanta’s “Native Flavors,” together with Clermont Lounge’s Krog Avenue Tunnel and Blondie.
Piedmont Park’s Robotic Rest room is not simply an oddball vacation spot; It’s the product of a few years of sustained, compassionate activism. Within the Nineteen Eighties, advocates known as for an answer to the decades-old drawback of lack of entry to public bathrooms, significantly for these dwelling on Atlanta’s streets. Members of the Open Door group declared that everybody has the correct to “pee free with dignity.” Within the lead-up to the 1996 Olympics, Mayor Invoice Campbell and Metropolis Council President Marvin Arrington Sr. negotiated with downtown builders and enterprise leaders to construct everlasting public restrooms, however these plans fell by means of. Lastly, in 2005, town’s Regional Fee on Homelessness, led by Invoice Bowling, started investing $1.5 million in 5 automated public amenities, a complicated resolution that had labored in New York Metropolis and Seattle however by no means caught on. Tried right here.
With such a excessive price ticket, critics have known as the initiative a “royal flush” of taxpayer cash. However at present, while you calculate the price of protected, first rate public restrooms, the funding appears far-sighted and beneficiant.
none of this again story at Piedmont Park, the place the robotic toilet isn’t stigmatized as a facility for the poor and homeless, however shared by all. As Atlanta prepares for the 2026 World Cup, our automated public amenities might use some love and a tune-up. I’d be delighted to see extra of them put in, including “native taste” and fundamental dignity to areas throughout town. Our robotic toilet is an unmitigated success story; After we make life a little bit simpler for our most susceptible residents, everybody advantages.
This text appeared in our August 2024 difficulty.
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