NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Seventeen new public bathrooms will be coming to neighborhoods across New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday, helping to address a problem he said every New Yorker knows too well.
"Many of us have pleaded with baristas and maitre d's. We have listened intently as a worker at Chipotle whispers the bathroom code to another paying customer," the mayor joked. "We have bought that $9 latte. And all of us at one point or another just turned around, and had to go home."
It is estimated NYC has only one public toilet for every 8,500 New Yorkers, a problem Mamdani said that "some prior administrations have paid lip service to," while "others have cast the need aside entirely."
As a start to rectifying this access issue, which the mayor said is a point of "dignity" for New Yorkers, the city has teamed up with the company Throne Labs, which will provide 17 bathrooms equipped with a comfortable interior, a running water sink, flushing toilet, air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, and a baby changing station across the five boroughs. Throne Labs will be responsible for cleaning and maintaining each touchless, modular unit, which will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A $4 million pilot program will bring bathrooms to the following locations:
Bronx: Yankee Stadium, Admiral Farragut Playground, Mapes Park and Monsignor Raul Del Valle Square
Brooklyn: Columbus Park, Milestone Park, Fulton Street and Truxton Street and Avenue C Plaza
Queens: Astoria Boulevard South and 31st Street, Northern Boulevard and 31st Street, Northern Boulevard and 54th Street and 34th Avenue and 64th Street
Manhattan: Cooper Square, Malcolm X Plaza, Delancey Street and Suffolk Street and Plaza Alianza Dominicana
Staten Island: North Shore Esplanade
