Are we really getting outdoor toilets?

Dear Urban Decoder: Are we really getting outdoor toilets?—Jeremy Tucker, Roncesvalles

It’s true that Toronto is redecorating with 26,000 new pieces of street furniture, including outdoor potties, which should start popping up next summer. Though the huts cost around $300,000 each, the tiny bladdered will be able to duck into one for just $1 per use. Equipped with sensors, the loo waits for the user to exit before kicking into sanitation mode, when the seat retracts into a wall for a full disinfection. Germs, however, may be the least of our concerns. In 2004, Seattle introduced outdoor washrooms, only to find that their wheelchair-friendly roominess lent itself to lusty rendezvous and drug use. The project was a disaster, and the troubled toilets recently went to the highest bidder on eBay.