Pay toilet coming to Flushing plaza

People who spend time in downtown Flushing will soon have the opportunity to experience the borough’s first Automatic Pay Toilet (APT), which will be installed near Lippman Plaza this September.
The Board of Directors of the Downtown Flushing Transit Hub Business Improvement District approved plans at their July 12 meeting to install the APT at the northern end of the passageway between Roosevelt Avenue and 38th Avenue.
The outdoor unit, one of 20 such high-tech outhouses, will feature a self-flushing toilet, a sink, soap dispenser and a unique cleaning system. It will cost 25 cents to use the toilet for up to 15 minutes.
The heated, glass and stainless steel public toilets will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. According to authorities, a device will warn the user when the time is about to expire.
When asked if Lippman Plaza was a good place for such a device, several passers-by had no idea where it was, even though they were standing on it. That will obviously change once the plaza becomes a destination rather than a shortcut from municipal parking lot number one to the eastern end of the Main Street station of the No. 7 line subway.
Burt, a watch vendor on the southern end of the plaza was relieved that he wouldn’t be displaced by the toilet. “It’s an excellent idea,” he said “people have to relieve themselves without being forced to beg in the stores.”