The City Council is seeking to give New Yorkers more places to relieve themselves by forcing city officials to complete the construction of 151 new public restrooms across the five boroughs, as approved in 2022.
The issue was pushed by the City Council at its infrastructure meeting on Thursday, with the Council noting that so far, only 55 of the planned public toilets have reached the planning stage for installation, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).
There are currently 1,066 Public toilets make up 98% of the city’s toiletsAccording to the DOT.
The newly amended bill directs the Mayor’s Office to work with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Transportation to estimate the construction and maintenance costs and develop an implementation schedule for the remaining 96 public restrooms.
Brooklyn Councilwoman Rita Joseph said she worked with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on crafting the bill.
“I’ve been a champion for bathroom bills both as a mother and as an educator who is forever going on field trips and trying to find restrooms that students can use on the field trip,” said Joseph, a former teacher.
But maybe we’ll have to hold off a little longer after all.
Margaret Forgione, first deputy commissioner for the Department of Transportation, testified that the department does not have funding for the restrooms, citing “city-wide capital needs.”
Parks and Recreation Department officials said Wednesday that the department is still working to secure funding for the remaining 96 restrooms.
A Department of Transportation spokesman did not immediately respond to The Post’s questions about the locations of the proposed new restrooms.
He said people will have even fewer opportunities to go to the city’s bathrooms in 2022 after the Adams administration decided that changes to building codes meant restaurants no longer had to allow the public to use their restrooms. Report from Crain’s.
The other 10 “automated” public sidewalk toilets will be installed and maintained by JCDeceaux, a company that sells outdoor advertising space, according to the Department of Transportation. Those toilets are still going through a “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 building and locating new facilities.
