NYC Council bill instructs city to study possibility of adding 2K more public bathrooms

The Big Apple may soon be flush with shiny new toilets.A bill passed by City Council Thursday directs officials to come up with a plan to create a citywide network of public restrooms.“Right now we don’t have a plan.We don’t have a strategy.

We have a hodgepodge of agency-specific processes that create a disjointed, stunted and some might call foul approach,” bill sponsor, Councilmember Sandy Nurse said Thursday before the council unanimously voted in support of the legislation.The bill directs the city to develop a longterm bathroom plan that will be updated every four years with the goal of adding at least 2,120 public bathrooms to the city by the year 2035 — half of which would be publicly owned.New York City currently has about 1,100 public toilets for its 8.6 million residents — or about one toilet per 7,800 residents.Nurse’ legislation aims to achieve a “target ratio” of one toilet per 2,000 city residents.“We’re a growing city,” Nurse said.“But somehow we’ve failed to address this issue.”The NYPD issued 9,904 criminal and civil summonses for urinating in public during fiscal year 2024 — a 46 percent increase from the previous year, according to the mayor’s preliminary management report.“No one should have to experience the humiliation or stress of having to relieve themselves out on the street,” Nurse said.

Nurse said more bathrooms would cut down on public urination summonses.A fiscal impact statement from both the mayor’s office and city council said the bill will not cost taxpayers any money since it only directs the Department of City Planning (DCP), the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to plan for the toilets — the legislation does not direct the agencies to build the toilets.But Nurse said the bathrooms will be expensive.“For example, a park bathroom with a woman and a man separate areas, brick and mortar is almost like $3 to $5 million,” Nurse said, addi...