Many say toilets have got to go - The units are called a haven for crime and may be removed, at Seattle's cost.

It is the public restroom of the future. But its heyday here may soon be in the past.

After three years in operation, Seattle is considering pulling the plug on these space-age restrooms, which cost the city $6.6 million.

Automated Public Toilets are used in more than 600 cities around the world -- Athens, Singapore and London -- and in the U.S., including New York, San Francisco, San Antonio, Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Los Angeles has seven similar units in operation, and an eighth is expected to open next week in Van Nuys.

Seattle's five automated public toilets, in operation since March 2004, are all near the downtown core, and they have been a source of complaints almost from Day One.

The Downtown Seattle Assn., a business group, has voiced concerns for more than a year.

"They are literally havens for drug deals and prostitution," says Anita Woo, a spokeswoman for the group.

Dale Joseph, 52, says of the unit in Pioneer Square: "I won't stand near it, even."

Joseph, who lives on the street here, sums up the situation: "If the doors open and there's a dealer doing business in there, and I'm looking at him, I've got a big problem. It's not worth it."

Seattle Public Utilities, which manages the so-called APTs, acknowledges that it has received complaints from the public and the business community.

Last fall a local TV station filmed drug dealers at work in the APTs. Around the same time, the editorial page of the Seattle Times advised the city to "cut its significant losses, cancel the contract, pay the penalty and move these dens of iniquity out."

The complaints and bad publicity have reached the mayor's office and City Council. Next spring, on the first chance the city has to opt out of its contracts to maintain and lease the restrooms, the City Council plans to talk about removing the units. Getting out of the contracts will cost a cancellation fee of $500,000, plus about $50,000 a toilet for removal.

Chuck Clarke, director of the utility agency, says the greatest challenge the program faces is "ensuring that these facilities are used solely for their intended activity."