It looks like the facilities at Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park won’t be piss-poor after all!
Hours after this newspaper published an online story noting the lack of restrooms at Pier 1 at the foot of Old Fulton Street in DUMBO — the one with acres of fresh new lawn, a kiddy park and awesome views on the water — the president of the park’s development corporation contacted our staff.
“We will have the bathroom up and running [by the end of April],” promised Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation President Regina Myer.
The announcement will certainly come as something of a, um, relief not only to park-goers, but to area businesspeople. Since it opened in March, the park has attracted plenty of visitors, yet given them no way to answer nature’s call — except to head to the nearest restaurant.
That restaurant happens to be Pete’s Downtown, across the street from the pier. Owner Peter Thristino has a situation on his hands.
“Now I’ve got my own customers lined up to use the bathroom,” said Thristino. “I have to spend money to man the door now, all because a multi-million-dollar park doesn’t have a pisser.”
Thristino said the facilities’ absence paired with a lack of transportation out of the area can make for some messy situations at his eatery. He noted, of course, that the pier created a new, wider customer base for him, but that “people buying a soda and lining up to use the bathroom” is unacceptable.
When told about Myer’s promise to install portable toilets by mid-April, Thristino said his “prayers have been answered,” and that he’ll take the hurdle in stride.
He and other restaurant owners in the immediate vicinity have been touting the park as an easy business pusher. With six acres of free, open space, the warm months approaching and the opening of Pier 6 in the near future, it’s easy to see why DUMBO businesses — the posh River Café, No. 1 Front Street, and Grimaldi’s Pizzeria among them — are thriving (as if Brooklyn Bridge didn’t have tourists in the first place).
“It’s a lot more beautiful than the trucking facility that was in its place,” said nearby Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory owner Mark Thompson. “It’s great to see all these people out so early in spring.”