The Large Apple could quickly be flush with shiny new bogs.
A invoice handed by Metropolis Council Thursday directs officers to give you a plan to create a citywide community 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,” invoice sponsor, Councilmember Sandy Nurse mentioned Thursday earlier than the council unanimously voted in assist of the laws.
The invoice directs town to develop a longterm rest room plan that will likely be up to date each 4 years with the objective of including no less than 2,120 public bogs to town by the yr 2035 — half of which might be publicly owned.
New York Metropolis presently has about 1,100 public bogs for its 8.6 million residents — or about one rest room per 7,800 residents.
Nurse’ laws goals to realize a “target ratio” of 1 rest room per 2,000 metropolis residents.
“We’re a growing city,” Nurse mentioned. “But somehow we’ve failed to address this issue.”
The NYPD issued 9,904 legal and civil summonses for urinating in public throughout fiscal yr 2024 — a 46 % enhance from the earlier yr, in response to the mayor’s preliminary administration report.
“No one should have to experience the humiliation or stress of having to relieve themselves out on the street,” Nurse mentioned.
Nurse mentioned extra bogs would lower down on public urination summonses.
A fiscal influence assertion from each the mayor’s workplace and metropolis council mentioned the invoice won’t value taxpayers any cash because it solely directs the Division of Metropolis Planning (DCP), the Division of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and the Division of Transportation (DOT) to plan for the bogs — the laws doesn’t direct the companies to construct the bogs.
However Nurse mentioned the bogs will likely be costly.
“For example, a park bathroom with a woman and a man separate areas, brick and mortar is almost like $3 to $5 million,” Nurse mentioned, including that it takes about 5 years to construct.
A spokesperson for the New York Metropolis Division of Parks didn’t instantly reply to The Publish’s inquiry in regards to the public restroom value.
Nurse mentioned she hopes the planning interval will assist town companies discover methods to chop prices of the expensive public bogs.
“There are new models out there. There are new ways that other cities are achieving the goals of a bigger bathroom network, and we’re just starting to get on board with that,” Nurse mentioned.
A public rest room in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood went viral for instance of presidency waste when it was initially priced at $1.7 million in 2022. After receiving donations, town went with a prefabricated rest room and the full challenge’s value ended up round $200,000 when the lavatory opened final yr.
“I have a modular unit in my district called the Portland Loo. It’s the first one in Brooklyn. It cost just under a million dollars and it took just under a year to build. We should be aggressively pursuing options like that,” Nurse mentioned.
However in New York Metropolis extra bogs doesn’t at all times equate to extra alternatives to go to the lavatory. A report on the state of public restrooms in New York Metropolis, launched by Metropolis Council final fall, mentioned two-thirds of all restrooms inspected for the report have been closed or had well being and issues of safety rendering them unusable.
The Council additionally discovered 10 % of loo stalls didn’t have functioning locks, 10 % of restrooms lacked cleaning soap, 13 % didn’t have rest room paper and there was rubbish strewn about in almost 40 % of the bogs, in response to the report.
“Parks and every single agency needs to do better to maintain all of our public spaces, our plazas, our parks, our bathrooms, our trash. Everything needs to be better invested in. We need more capacity,” Nurse mentioned.
A spokesperson from the Parks division didn’t instantly reply to an inquiry from The Publish in regards to the cleanliness of park bogs both.
Mayor Eric Adams nonetheless has to signal the invoice earlier than it turns into regulation. He supported a plan so as to add 46 extra public restroom to New York Metropolis final June.
“We need to put the resources to maintain our public spaces so that we can enjoy spending time outside and that includes places to use the bathroom,” Nurse mentioned.
