Seattle, your 'Throne' awaits. New public restrooms unveiled before World Cup 54%
By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch0%
5/15/2026, 11:45:15 PM
Topics: Health
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Optimism Bias, and Indoctrination, with Attempt to Sell a Product or Service as the most egregious example at 23.8% saturation with 134 hits. Analysis detected 1,292 faulty-reasoning hits from 563 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 52.6% and a BS Rank of 54% (7,736 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 54.00% of the article peer group.
Seattle inaugurated four new public toilets made by the company, Throne Labs, Friday in Pioneer Square and next to Lumen Field.
Two other Throne toilets opened earlier this week at the Lakewood Transit Center.
The units have flush toilets, running water, and solar-powered lights, with access granted through a QR code, phone app, text message, or special entry card handed out by Downtown Ambassadors and city street outreach workers.
At the end of the visit, users rate the cleanliness of the toilet.
Throne monitors the feedback 24/7 and can dispatch cleaning crews as needed.
Friday morning, retired mail carrier and budding public sanitation advocate, Pat Deagen, trekked from Shoreline especially to see the new toilets for himself.
“Availability of toilets is so important for people’s dignity, for everyone’s health to not have feces around and the stink of urine,” he said.
Deagan’s rating of the Thrones?
Pretty good, but he has some concerns.
On the plus side they were clean and nice.
But Deagan said he’s worried that they won’t hold up to repeated use.
One throne across from Lumen Field was already “closed for maintenance” on the first morning.
Moreover, the units are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and closed overnight for deep cleaning and to prevent vandalism.
In the coming weeks Throne toilets will also open at transit centers in Burien and Shoreline, managed by King County Metro.
Each costs around $100,000 a year to operate, with funding for the Seattle units coming from the Seattle Transportation Levy.
Seattle officials are testing the toilets out for a year but hope they could be a permanent solution.
The city has considered installing public toilets of the “Portland Loo” variety, but locations with the right combination of easy utility access and foot traffic were too hard to find, Seattle Department of Transportation Deputy Director Liz Shelton said.
“We’re able to monitor the Throne, and if it’s not working in a location, it can be moved pretty easily,” she said.
Ironically, some restroom advocates say a public bathroom shouldn't be too private.
The organization, Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human (PHLUSH) encourages bathrooms to be sited in places that "benefit from natural surveillance by the community" to encourage safety and prevent vandalism or unwanted behaviors.
The Portland Loo encourages accountability through design: clever slits at the top and bottom that connect the inside and outside, while shielding the user from view.
Thrones seek to impose accountability through the entry system, in which every user gets an anonymous unique id, and subsequent users are prompted to rate how clean the restroom was when they got there.
"We are actually using real-time feedback from people who are telling us, 'This is dirty right now, come clean it,'" Throne CEO Fletcher Wilson said at the inaugural event Friday.
Over the decades, Seattle has attempted a handful of different public toilet designs.
Most recently, a 2019 proposal for staffed "Pit Stops" failed to materialize.
This year, public officials are framing the Thrones as a trial.
“I’m excited to see how these bathrooms work in real world conditions, especially during our upcoming World Cup,” Mayor Katie Wilson said at a “toilet paper ribbon cutting” event Friday afternoon.
“And then see what else we can do to make public spaces more comfortable, functional, and welcoming for everyone.”
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