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D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

washingtonian.com

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Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#81

Post by trhway »

MonkeyMalarky wrote: post #7
teddyh wrote: post #3

> User IDs are part of Throne’s accountability system: After you use a restroom, you’re asked to rate its cleanliness. Meanwhile, each user gets a “Throne score,” similar to Uber, and repeat offenders who abuse the restroom will be blocked. Weight sensors also track if someone’s been in the bathroom too long. “Very few people create issues in [public] bathrooms, don’t respect that amenity, and then ruin it for the ma…

Seriously though, accountability is the missing thing. If getting banned for consistently making a mess is what it takes to get public bathrooms back, then so be it. There's no excuse for the shit I've seen. I'm tired of being denied amenities because of other peoples' degenerate behaviour.

> If getting banned for consistently making a mess is what it takes to get public bathrooms back, then so be it.

we have similar system already in place. It is called "no-fly list". Interesting that most of the people on this site is against it while seem to support the proposed "no-bathroom list". I wonder why so. May be it is because the people here allow for non-zero possibility that they may be subjected to the former while they are sure that the latter would never apply to them.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#82

Post by slumpt_ »

CharlesW wrote: post #28
eyelidlessness wrote: post #14

> QR code Um, solve the public restrooms problem for whom? Granted I’ve been living far from DC for 20 years, but I spent a large chunk of this summer there. Access to public restrooms was the same as it is here in Seattle: only a problem if you’re a street critter. People who can scan QR codes already have plenty of access to restrooms, they just need to at least suggest they’ll buy something. Homeless people and pe…

The callousness of “street critter” really hits hard.

Hackernews in general can be quite callous towards poverty.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#83

Post by DubiousPusher »

imgabe wrote: post #69
DubiousPusher wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you use the bathroom? I do it at home, at work or in a business I am patronizing. All three things a destitute street person does not generally have access to.

Train/Bus stations, shopping malls, libraries, homeless shelters, fast food restaurants, gas stations, hotel lobbies, churches The destitute do also patronize businesses as well from time to time. You do nobody any favors by infantilizing them. Grown adults can find a place to relieve themselves without fouling the public space. If not, perhaps they need to be placed in a facility where they can receive the care and…

I'm not sure what it's like where you live but where I live it's like this.

Train/Bus stations don't have bathrooms.

Homeless shelters and the churches which do provide services make you leave during the day and do not let people back in under any circumstances until around 5 PM.

Fast food restaurants, gas stations and hotel lobbies all lock their bathrooms and allow access to patrons only.

Which leaves shopping malls and libraries. In a huge city, that's a pretty low toilet density.

> but that needs to be coupled with enforcement against people who would abuse them,

I have no problem with this. Vandalizing public utilities should be a crime which is enforced. Having to answer the call of nature should not be.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#84

Post by creato »

askvictor wrote: post #66
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the options to "improve society" so people don't make a mess in shared bathrooms? PSAs? Public shaming? Collateral put down to use bathrooms? Do you have any better and specific ideas? I can't think of much more gentle and more likely to motivate people to change behavior than a public accountability system, although it is regrettable that it must be run through a for-profit entity and look like a social cre…

Education. Some of which needs to happen through parenting, so this is a multi-generational concept. But to start with, properly fund an education system.

You think people are pooping on the sidewalk because they don’t know any better? Their first grade teacher failed them?

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#85

Post by missedthecue »

askvictor wrote: post #66
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the options to "improve society" so people don't make a mess in shared bathrooms? PSAs? Public shaming? Collateral put down to use bathrooms? Do you have any better and specific ideas? I can't think of much more gentle and more likely to motivate people to change behavior than a public accountability system, although it is regrettable that it must be run through a for-profit entity and look like a social cre…

Education. Some of which needs to happen through parenting, so this is a multi-generational concept. But to start with, properly fund an education system.

People destroy public property because we only spent $20,000 a year per person to educate them through high school? How much more to fix the problem? $1,000? $5,000?

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#86

Post by DubiousPusher »

derefr wrote: post #65
DubiousPusher wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not worrying about it and accepting that sometimes life is gross?

Someone still has to clean the horrible mess; and that costs money (a lot of money, in the case where someone has created what's basically a biohazard by "writing in brown pen" on the walls); and companies / municipalities don't want to pay that money... which leads to the current situation, where there are basically no public bathrooms. "Just accepting it" is something individuals might do, but it's not something ra…

Human civilization survived open sewers, massive public latrines and unseperated water supply and waste. Not something I'd like to go back to by any means. But with modern knowledge and technology, and call me crazy if you like, I believe we can sanitize a few dozen poop disasters a day without bringing on a typhoid plague or breaking the bank.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#87

Post by eyelidlessness »

slumpt_ wrote: post #82
CharlesW wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The callousness of “street critter” really hits hard.

Hackernews in general can be quite callous towards poverty.

I’m not sure if my post was taken as callous but I was explicitly rejecting anti poverty, my usage of the term was as a term of affection for the people I was advocating for, and identification with them. To be absolutely blunt I have only solidarity with my fellow street critters. And I want them to be able to use a bathroom without a QR code. Like everyone who isn’t a street critter can do (despite bullshit whining in other comments)

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#88

Post by sigstoat »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #43
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the options to "improve society" so people don't make a mess in shared bathrooms? PSAs? Public shaming? Collateral put down to use bathrooms? Do you have any better and specific ideas? I can't think of much more gentle and more likely to motivate people to change behavior than a public accountability system, although it is regrettable that it must be run through a for-profit entity and look like a social cre…

Not worrying about it and accepting that sometimes life is gross?

poor sanitation is a public health risk, not merely “gross”ness.

i’ve seen some public bathrooms are so mistreated that i don’t know how you pay anyone to clean them. i’d certainly feel awful asking a janitor to clean them without a hazmat suit, a pressure washer and a bag full of tergazyme.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#89

Post by borski »

trhway wrote: post #81
MonkeyMalarky wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously though, accountability is the missing thing. If getting banned for consistently making a mess is what it takes to get public bathrooms back, then so be it. There's no excuse for the shit I've seen. I'm tired of being denied amenities because of other peoples' degenerate behaviour.

> If getting banned for consistently making a mess is what it takes to get public bathrooms back, then so be it. we have similar system already in place. It is called "no-fly list". Interesting that most of the people on this site is against it while seem to support the proposed "no-bathroom list". I wonder why so. May be it is because the people here allow for non-zero possibility that they may be subjected to the f…

The no fly list is easy to end up on by simply having the wrong name. The “no bathroom” list blocks you if and only if you treat it poorly and make a mess.

Not equivalent.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#90

Post by DubiousPusher »

sigstoat wrote: post #88
DubiousPusher wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not worrying about it and accepting that sometimes life is gross?

poor sanitation is a public health risk, not merely “gross”ness. i’ve seen some public bathrooms are so mistreated that i don’t know how you pay anyone to clean them. i’d certainly feel awful asking a janitor to clean them without a hazmat suit, a pressure washer and a bag full of tergazyme.

Let's give that to them then. Better than jailing people for shittimg in my opinion.
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