NYC Council campaigning to finish adding 151 new public bathrooms
The City Council is pushing to provide more places for New Yorkers to do their business, by forcing the city agancies to finish adding 151 new public restrooms across the five boroughs, as signed off on in 2022.
The issue was pushed during an infrastructure meeting Thursday by the City Council, who noted so far only 55 of the planned public restrooms have even reached the stage of being planned to be installed, according to the Department of Transport (DOT).
There are currently 1,066 public restrooms which cover 98 percent of the city, according to DOT.
The newly revised bill tells the mayor’s office — working with the Department of Parks and Recreation and DOT — to estimate construction and maintenance costs and develop an implementation timeline for the other 96 public restrooms.
Brooklyn council member Rita Joseph said she worked with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine to craft the bill.
“I’ve been pushing for bathroom bills as a mom and as a forever educator who would go on trips and look for restrooms for our students to use on the trips,” Joseph, a former teacher, said.
However, they may end up having to hold it in a little longer.
Margaret Forgione, first deputy commissioner at DOT, testified her deparment doesn’t have money for the bathrooms, citing the “overall capital needs of the city”.
A Department of Parks and Recreation official said Wednesday the department is still working to identify funding for the other 96 bathrooms.
A DOT spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s questions about where the proposed new bathrooms will be located.
The opportunity to go to the bathroom in the city became more scarce in 2022 after the Adams administration decided a change to building code meant restaurants no longer had to allow the public to use their bathrooms, according to a report from Crains.
Ten other “automatic” public sidewalk toilets are supposed to be installed and maintained by JCDeceaux, a company that sells outdoor advertising space, according to DOT.
Those toilets are still going through the “stakeholder approval process,” Forgione testified Thursday.
The new bill would also require agencies to consider population data and social and equity indicators to determine “foreseeable challenges” to constructing and installing the new facilities.
