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Monday, February 25, 2008
Atlanta priorities — $300,000 toilets for homeless
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s infrastructure is crumbling. Its flagship public hospital is on life support. Its roads are among the most congested in the nation. It faces a continuing water-supply crisis. But don’t worry, the City has its priorities in order. Atlanta is about ready to unveil the latest example of how it spends its taxpayers’ dollars. The City has taken $1.5 million from its Development Authority “Homeless Opportunity Fund” and built five $300,000, state-of-the-art, technologically advanced public toilets for homeless persons to use.
Atlanta residents might legitimately ask the City exactly what “homeless opportunity” is advanced by such an expenditure, other than offering a few people the ability to relieve themselves in a public toilet with running warm water, automatic toilet paper dispensers, and piped-in music playing — get this — “What the World Needs Now is Love” (I kid you not).
Apparently this expenditure is based on what the City perceives as a basic human right to a state-of-the-art public commode. The head of Atlanta’s Community Food Bank has weighed in, gushing that this expenditure reflects “something we all deserve as citizens.” One wonders if the toilets will poof one’s bottom with talcum powder as the user rises from the taxpayer-funded throne.
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