LOS ANGELES — As a lifelong Long Beach resident and daily walker, Maria Penaloza has her trail path down.
What You Need To Know
The City of Long Beach is extending its pilot program for ‘smart’ public restrooms after strong usage and positive community feedback
The high-tech restrooms are placed in areas that usually do not have access to public restrooms
The pilot program is a partnership with Throne Labs, the maker of the restrooms
The program would have ended in late August but was extended until next year
“I plan my stops and I always know my places where the restrooms are clean,” Penaloza said.
The area near the Belmont Pier was not on her stop list until the city of Long Beach partnered with Throne Labs to install a high-tech portable restroom to see if people would use it.
For Penaloza, that move was a game changer.
“We do avoid the restrooms here on the pier. The public porta potties are probably one of the worst. And so it was just such a breath of fresh air to have something so clean here at the pier,” Penaloza said.
Users, like Penaloza, scan a QR code that opens up a text on their phone to send. Once sent, the restroom opens automatically, welcoming the user to enter.
The effort is part of a pilot program to increase public restroom access across the city of Long Beach.
It launched in May 2025 with four restrooms placed in various parts of the city to measure use and response. The pilot run lasted until mid-August; however, given the feedback, the city extended the service of three of the original locations until September 2026.
Those locations include DeForest Park, Harvey Milk Promenade Park, and the Belmont Pier until September of next year.
Todd Leland, the marine bureau manager for the city of Long Beach, explains the restrooms are strategically placed.
“Here at this location. You have to walk probably about five or 10 minutes east or another five, 10 minutes to the west to get a public restroom,” Leland said.
He adds that the solar-powered restrooms are also completely touchless for hygiene.
The four original restrooms had about 31,000 visits in the first four months.
One of those users was Long Beach resident Roeshunna Sallee.
“When I first walked in, I noticed that the floor had just been mopped because it was just shining at me. So I was like, oh, this is nice and clean. It just makes me comfortable,” Salleee said.
The floors are mopped often, during the hour and a half Spectrum News was there, the restroom was service twice by Throne Labs employee Maria Ortega who both times wiped down the walls, floors, surfaces and restocked soap, toilet paper or trash bags needed.
Ortega shares besides cleaning; she checks for any malfunctions and, if there is an issue, alerts the company to come out and fix it.
Leland said they do this multiple times during the hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
“They clean based on the data. And so if you have a high volume use a restroom like we have here at the Belmont Pier, it’s going to get more cleanings based on use. So this unit actually gets cleaned once probably every 12 uses,” Leland said.
Leland said knowing families use these restrooms was also a reason to test them out in the city.
“At our beachfront public restrooms, we do have issues with overstay; people tend to stay in the restrooms and use them for encampment accommodations. So these Throne Lab smart restrooms, they give you a ten-minute limit that comes with an audible warning before opening the door to let the user out,” Leland said.
He said that currently the program has seen success based on the survey responds of those who use it sent back. However, funding for them to continue past next September is still to be decided.
Something Sallee hopes goes through.
“I didn’t have to go off the walking trail. I just got back on a walking trail and went on about my day. It’s very convenient. Very convenient. I hope they can stick around,” Sallee said.