{"id":475443,"date":"2026-09-25T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475443\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:58:09","slug":"what-could-have-been-san-diego-fumbles-public-restroom-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475443\/","title":{"rendered":"What Could Have Been: San Diego Fumbles Public Restroom Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This post first appeared in the Morning Report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s New York City provides no lack of municipal FOMO for cynical San Diegans, but the city\u2019s latest expansion of public restrooms hit especially close to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this month, Mamdani announced he would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/mayors-office\/news\/2026\/09\/mayor-mamdani-brings-17-new-public-bathrooms-to-neighborhoods-ac\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">add 17 public restrooms across the city<\/a> through a partnership with Throne Labs. The modular, single-user restroom units operate under an all-inclusive model, with maintenance costs included at a <a href=\"https:\/\/thronelabs.co\/blog\/do-you-know-the-real-cost-of-a-public-restroom-most-cities-dont\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">rate of $6,000 per month<\/a> (compared to more than $13,000 per month for comparable prefabricated restrooms).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If this sounds familiar to you, it may be because San Diego <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/2024\/12\/05\/what-its-like-to-pee-in-a-remote-controlled-futuristic-porta-potty\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">test-ran a batch of Throne toilets<\/a> starting in late 2024. Environment Reporter MacKenzie Elmer wrote about it at the time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/thronebathrooms-1-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-742864\"  \/>The inside of a Throne bathroom features colorful wall paper, San Diego, Dec. 5, 2024. \/ Zo\u00eb Meyers for Voice of San Diego <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe whole experience was a bit like taking a whiz inside a Pottery Barn bathroom on Mars,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBut for once I felt cleaner leaving a public restroom than I did upon entering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, what ever happened to the pilot program?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were on track to launch in early 2026 until local sales tax Measure E failed,\u201d said Evie Smith Hatmaker, a representative for Throne Labs. \u201cFacing significant budget constraints, the initiative was suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, instead of 10 shiny, new robot restrooms, we lost <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/2026\/05\/13\/nearly-40-public-restrooms-would-close-under-budget-proposal\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more than 30 existing restrooms<\/a> \u2013 some of which have since been restored due to public pushback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ah\u2026 what could have been 3<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post first appeared in the Morning Report. Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s New York City provides no lack of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-475443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}