If you walk long enough on the streets of New York City, you’re going to smell urine. No matter how many flowers or perfume-wearing commuters are around, that pungent odor still sneaks through like a stalker’s head in the bushes. It’s evidence that New York City, as modern as it is, has only 1,000 public restrooms for its 8.3 million residents.
“We all have needed a public bathroom only to find there were none nearby,” City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse told me. In August 2023, she proposed a bill requiring the city to build at least one public restroom for every 2,000 residents by 2035. Another councilwoman, Rita Joseph, has proposed requiring municipal buildings to open their restrooms to the public. Both bills are expected to be voted on by the Council in 2025, and are signs of a new, serious effort to address the restroom shortages afflicting the city.
I am excited by these solutions. They are practical and easy to carry out if we want them. And I believe their impact can extend beyond the city’s borders. According to one estimate, the United States has only eight public restrooms per 100,000 people. If the most populous American city is able to solve this longstanding problem, it can be a blueprint for the rest of the nation.
When the fiscal crisis of the 1970s hit, New York City elected to stop funding some public services like restrooms. Prejudice against poor people has arguably allowed the problem to fester. In talking to hundreds of New Yorkers about urban planning and the city’s design, I’ve learned that many are uncomfortable with the concept of free public restrooms, believing they will inevitably be destroyed by people without means. Without being explicit about it, they seem to adhere to the age-old presumption that those in poverty are destructive.
In 1990, four homeless individuals sued New York City over the lack of public restrooms. An appeals court ruled against the plaintiffs, declaring they had no constitutional right to public restrooms. The irony is that the legal system could not ensure these homeless plaintiffs public restrooms, but it could ensure that they would be punished for public urination resulting from the lack of such restrooms.
The mayors in power since that suit have let the issue worsen. A recent City Council report found that 66 percent of the city’s park restrooms were closed or had documented health and safety problems. This has left the public at the mercy of private establishments, most of which open their restrooms only to paying customers.
This can be especially difficult for the disabled or those contending with health conditions. I have fibroids, uterine tumors that push down on my urinary tract. One glass of water means three bathroom trips within the next hour with a 10-minute window to get there. Last month, I ran into a cafe and assured the employees I’d buy something, but needed to use the restroom right away because of a medical condition. No, pay first. Please? No! Bathroom code on the receipt. I stood in the line with four people ahead of me, before quickly realizing I was about to wet myself. I ran into the next nearest business, loudly begging to use the restroom.
When my humiliation subsided, I thought about the Restroom Access Law (nicknamed Ally’s Law), which requires retail businesses in New York to allow customers with an eligible medical condition like Crohn’s disease access to their employee restrooms in an emergency. But the key word is “customers.”
Businesses’ restrooms are so tightly guarded that even delivery workers from apps like DoorDash and UberEats had to fight for a law in 2021 to force the restaurants they delivered for to let them use their toilets.
Ms. Nurse and Ms. Joseph’s bills are an important step in making it easier for all New Yorkers to find relief. One looming question is how the city would fund a mandate for building more public restrooms.
I do not recommend toilets that people must pay to use. Though some states ban pay toilets, in other parts of the country they have made a comeback, including San Francisco. I believe a public restroom should be free. The goal should be to move away from the current situation in which the public is forced to pay businesses to get access to a restroom.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider public-private partnerships — which Councilwoman Nurse says will most likely play a role in carrying out the provisions of her bill for new public restrooms. One strategy would be to mandate that privately owned public spaces in the city, such as plazas and small parks, include public restrooms. In such cases, the city will need to ensure that these restrooms are designed to be not just pretty and clean, but also welcome and inviting to all who need them.
Still, the best approach for public restrooms is the simplest: The government should fund and build them. Providing a service every New Yorker can use is worthy of our tax dollars.
I hope these two bills are the beginning of a nationwide movement to tackle the restroom shortage. Public restroom access is more than just public infrastructure and urban planning. It is about designing cities and communities that are accessible and open to all.
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