{"id":362656,"date":"2026-10-02T07:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362656\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:06:31","slug":"we-test-peed-nycs-new-modular-app-activated-public-toilets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362656\/","title":{"rendered":"We Test-Peed NYC&#8217;s New Modular, App-Activated Public Toilets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Modular toilets&#8221; have a deservedly bad rap. Their design conjures long lines at music festivals or <a href=\"https:\/\/portlandloo.com\/?ref=hellgatenyc.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">East German chic<\/a>. And their inherent impermanence means they are either <a href=\"https:\/\/hellgatenyc.com\/portland-loo-new-york-city\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cheap<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/hellgatenyc.com\/porcelain-new-york-prospect-park-outhouse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disgusting<\/a> or, frequently, both.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/mayors-office\/news\/2026\/09\/mayor-mamdani-brings-17-new-public-bathrooms-to-neighborhoods-ac?ref=hellgatenyc.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">17 new Throne Labs modular toilets<\/a> that the Mamdani administration is scattering across the five boroughs are a cut above the usual temporary toilet. They&#8217;re like what your rich cousin got for their farmhouse wedding\u2014but nicer.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday around noon, I approached the Throne Lab sitting in Cadman Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn, which was busy with <a href=\"https:\/\/grownyc.org\/locations\/brooklyn-borough-hall-greenmarket-2\/?ref=hellgatenyc.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">greenmarket patrons<\/a> and municipal workers on break. I had already downloaded the Throne Labs app, which told me that the bathroom was currently &#8220;sparkling clean,&#8221; and opened the door to the toilet with my phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        Subscribe to read the full story<\/p>\n<p class=\"content-cta__description mb\">\n        Become a paid subscriber to Hell Gate to access all of our posts.\n    <\/p>\n<p>      <a href=\"#\/portal\/account\/\" class=\"passata color-hg__text background-hg__background p-match radius-match border text-2125 text-decoration-none mb\"><br \/>\n        Subscribe<br \/>\n      <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;Modular toilets&#8221; have a deservedly bad rap. Their design conjures long lines at music festivals or East German&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-362656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}