Those new “Throne” portable toilets are eyesores and nuisances

[Anonymous]

DC has parked a bunch of trailer toilets around the city as an equity measure or something. Just saw one in a nicely landscaped park and it is a complete eyesore, and is no doubt going to be destroyed or taken over for prostitution and drug dealing in short order.

I fully support having bathrooms available but … crazy idea, why doesn’t the city build nice looking actual permanent bathrooms that they staff with actual people?

[Anonymous]

Picture?

[Anonymous]

Oh, they’re not bad. I’ve used them with my kid at a park in MD. It’s a local company and they monitor them remotely. There’s some sort of automated cleaning process too. Since you use a QR code to get in, and they can “ban” people who mess up the bathroom, it’s kind of the opposite of an equity thing isn’t it?

[Anonymous]

Agree with you OP. There should be nice public toilets, and they should be staffed.

[Anonymous]

No one’s going to pay anyone to staff a public park bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one’s going to pay anyone to staff a public park bathroom.

Well not with that attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s going to pay anyone to staff a public park bathroom.

Well not with that attitude.

[Anonymous]

Bring back toilets where you have to put a quarter in to use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has parked a bunch of trailer toilets around the city as an equity measure or something. Just saw one in a nicely landscaped park and it is a complete eyesore, and is no doubt going to be destroyed or taken over for prostitution and drug dealing in short order.

I fully support having bathrooms available but … crazy idea, why doesn’t the city build nice looking actual permanent bathrooms that they staff with actual people?

Are you nuts? This is not a thing. Meanwhile, portable public bathrooms have been a thing in big cities across Europe and Asia for decades. You've never left the country, have you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, they’re not bad. I’ve used them with my kid at a park in MD. It’s a local company and they monitor them remotely. There’s some sort of automated cleaning process too. Since you use a QR code to get in, and they can “ban” people who mess up the bathroom, it’s kind of the opposite of an equity thing isn’t it?

If all that is true I support this. I don't even view it as an equity thing. Having clean and functional public toilets in public spaces is a sign of a civilized society. I have always found it weird how rare they are in the US -- it's generally not that hard to find public toilets in European and Asian countries. Sometimes you have to pay a nominal fee or yes use a QR or similar to access but that's fine (and keeps them from becoming homeless shelters or places for prostitution or drugs) but it's just a very normal thing you see in cities around the world that for some reason has been hard to accomplish here.

[Anonymous]

Let's clean/staff the existing toilets and then build more

[Anonymous]

Loved the self cleaning toilets on the german autobahn--those things were cleeeeeaaaann. And you paid a small fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, they’re not bad. I’ve used them with my kid at a park in MD. It’s a local company and they monitor them remotely. There’s some sort of automated cleaning process too. Since you use a QR code to get in, and they can “ban” people who mess up the bathroom, it’s kind of the opposite of an equity thing isn’t it?

If all that is true I support this. I don't even view it as an equity thing. Having clean and functional public toilets in public spaces is a sign of a civilized society. I have always found it weird how rare they are in the US -- it's generally not that hard to find public toilets in European and Asian countries. Sometimes you have to pay a nominal fee or yes use a QR or similar to access but that's fine (and keeps them from becoming homeless shelters or places for prostitution or drugs) but it's just a very normal thing you see in cities around the world that for some reason has been hard to accomplish here.

OP here. My objections are that this thing is absolutely hideous - I’ve seen the versions in Europe and SF and this one is so ugly. And it’s placed literally in the middle of a small landscaped sitting area taking up valuable public space. They could have found a better spot for it. Finally this being DC I am 100% certain it will be destroyed and/or used for drug dealing within a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, they’re not bad. I’ve used them with my kid at a park in MD. It’s a local company and they monitor them remotely. There’s some sort of automated cleaning process too. Since you use a QR code to get in, and they can “ban” people who mess up the bathroom, it’s kind of the opposite of an equity thing isn’t it?

If all that is true I support this. I don't even view it as an equity thing. Having clean and functional public toilets in public spaces is a sign of a civilized society. I have always found it weird how rare they are in the US -- it's generally not that hard to find public toilets in European and Asian countries. Sometimes you have to pay a nominal fee or yes use a QR or similar to access but that's fine (and keeps them from becoming homeless shelters or places for prostitution or drugs) but it's just a very normal thing you see in cities around the world that for some reason has been hard to accomplish here.

OP here. My objections are that this thing is absolutely hideous - I’ve seen the versions in Europe and SF and this one is so ugly. And it’s placed literally in the middle of a small landscaped sitting area taking up valuable public space. They could have found a better spot for it. Finally this being DC I am 100% certain it will be destroyed and/or used for drug dealing within a week.

You could wait a week and see whether that actually happens?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring back toilets where you have to put a quarter in to use them.

Well that’s basically what this is. Except the quarter is subsidized by whatever local government or business group put it there and you use your phone to access it.

If the local authority stopped paying for it, it would just disappear or I guess it could become pay per use? I think the appeal to governments is that they don’t have to commit to building, staffing and maintaining a brick and mortar bathroom for fifty years or whatever. If you end the experiment, they just put it on a truck.

I honestly don’t see how these would be used for drug dealing. Drug using, sure! But that’s the idea of the access control and the remote monitoring I think.

I doubt this company is profitable at this stage so enjoy them now while they’re probably super interested in successful proof points and not squeezing out petit coins.