Simply days after taking workplace, Mayor Zohran Mamdani moved to deal with certainly one of New York Metropolis’s most continual quality-of-life complaints: the dearth of public bogs.
Standing at twelfth Avenue and St. Clair Place in West Harlem, he introduced a brand new $4 million dedication to develop restroom entry, directing the New York Metropolis Financial Growth Company to start soliciting bids inside his first 100 days for modular, high-quality public bogs.
The plan, he stated, would ship bogs sooner and cheaper than conventional metropolis building tasks.
“Everybody is aware of the sensation of needing a toilet and never having the ability to discover one,” Mamdani stated on the press convention, joined by Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin. “With this new dedication to public bogs, we’re guaranteeing New Yorkers can journey by our metropolis with rather less anxiousness.”
However even because the administration pushes to construct new bogs in busy neighborhoods and high-need areas, dozens of current public restrooms in metropolis parks stay out of service.
All advised, there are practically 1,000 metropolis operated public restrooms throughout the 5 boroughs, roughly 70% of them in parks. The Parks Division says about 90% are operational.
However that leaves roughly 50 Parks Division bogs at present closed for repairs or renovations, a few of which have dragged on for years, in line with metropolis price range information. Some have been within the design part for months, and others have taken years to get going, in line with the company’s on-line tracker.
Manhattan Councilmember Gale Brewer stated the mayor’s proposed toilet enlargement plan is smart, however warned that fixing what already exists needs to be simply as pressing.
“Because the mayor is speaking about spending cash on new bogs, we do want to repair those that exist,” Brewer advised THE CITY. “The Parks Division is the place a lot of the public bogs are.”
Brewer famous that other than the 50 which can be formally closed for repairs, many open bogs are in tough situation. In Manhattan, she stated, solely a handful are broadly praised together with the well-maintained facility in Bryant Park, which has a full-time attendant, and one other in Bella Abzug Park in Hell’s Kitchen.
Against this, a number of bogs in Riverside Park — together with ones close to playgrounds and ballfields — are in “very unhealthy form,” she stated, with renovation prices estimated between $5 million and $13 million.
The value tag for park toilet building has been climbing for years.
A 2019 investigation by THE CITY discovered that the everyday Parks Division restroom — a no-frills rectangular construction with 4 partitions, a number of bogs and a handful of sinks — value taxpayers just below $3.6 million on common. That was practically triple the $1.3 million common the company spent in 2011.
The lavatory battle highlights a broader price range debate.
On the marketing campaign path, Mamdani repeatedly vowed to spice up funding for the town’s Parks Division.
The preliminary price range launched final month retains funding for the company basically flat, at roughly half the 1% of the overall price range Mamdani had pledged.
Park advocates are urging the mayor to observe by together with his marketing campaign promise and add funding for the town’s inexperienced areas — and a few of their busted bogs.
The ultimate price range have to be accepted by the Metropolis Council by the beginning of the fiscal yr on July 1.
Brewer and a few of her colleagues have lengthy advocated for extra assets for metropolis bogs.
A December 2025 report from the New York Metropolis Council Oversight and Investigations Division — launched by Brewer’s workplace and titled Good To Go? — says the lavatory downside doesn’t simply entail spots which can be closed for repairs.
Council investigators inspected 172 restroom websites throughout all 5 boroughs and located that a couple of in 10 surveyed restrooms — all situated in parks — had been closed throughout posted working hours. Practically one in 9 park restrooms had been closed once they had been alleged to be open.
The report additionally discovered that greater than two in 5 restrooms surveyed had been lacking at the least one fundamental necessity similar to cleaning soap, bathroom paper, a rubbish can or a approach to dry fingers. Multiple in seven restroom stalls lacked a functioning lock. And greater than 1 / 4 of open restrooms didn’t have a diaper altering desk.
“These closures signify a scarcity of reliability for members of the general public,” the report concluded, warning that uncertainty round whether or not bogs are open can contribute to a broader notion of restroom shortage citywide.
‘Screaming About Bogs Perpetually’
At Riverside Park, the state of affairs is especially stark, in line with Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy.
“I’ve been screaming about bogs ceaselessly,” Birnbaum advised THE CITY.
Riverside Park has 14 restrooms in complete — 13 open to the general public and one cell restroom that the conservancy bought, operates and staffs itself close to the pickleball courts. That unit, she famous, is seasonal and at present closed for the winter.
Of the 13 public restrooms at Riverside maintained by the Parks Division, 5 are at present closed.
“That’s 5 out of 13,” Birnbaum stated. “They’re closed both as a result of they don’t have warmth, as a result of water mains broke within the space and haven’t been mounted, or due to electrical energy and crumbling infrastructure points.”
In some circumstances, she stated, water just isn’t being restored as a result of damaged strains serve solely park services, and the division lacks ample plumbers to prioritize the repairs. “This is happening a number of weeks of nobody having the ability to repair water points in our park,” she stated.
Even among the many bogs that stay open, most haven’t seen main inside upgrades in many years.
“A lot of them haven’t been mounted or upgraded inside for 70 to 80 years,” Birnbaum stated. “They’re falling aside and disgusting.”
Birnbaum additionally pointed to the town’s slow-moving procurement system as one other impediment.
In July 2021, then-Councilmember Mark Levine secured $1.8 million in discretionary funding for a modular restroom close to Discovery Playground in Fort Washington Park, she stated. “Everybody was very excited.”
5 years later, the lavatory has but to reach.
“It’s nonetheless in procurement,” Birnbaum stated. “We’re nowhere close to building. The system is so damaged that it can’t, 5 years later, ship what was thought-about to be a straightforward toilet.”
As for the mayor’s new toilet plan, the administration says the 20 to 30 modular items — just like fashions rolled out in Los Angeles and Portland — could possibly be put in inside months, dramatically accelerating a metropolis course of that usually drags on for years.
A brand new self-cleaning, absolutely accessible public toilet is slated to open later this yr on the West Harlem web site the place Mamdani spoke, with the New York Metropolis Division of Transportation overseeing set up.
The brand new initiative is aimed largely at plazas and industrial corridors past the parks system, the place entry might be even scarcer.
It’s not the primary time a mayor is pushing for added bogs.
In 2006, the Bloomberg administration introduced a 20-year franchise settlement with Cemusa, later purchased by JC Decaux, to place in 20 computerized public bogs, 3,500 bus cease shelters and at the least 330 newsstands in New York Metropolis.
However solely 5 of the bogs have been put in and the town has struggled to search out appropriate new spots. For years, the others remained mothballed in a Queens warehouse, however metropolis officers declined to say the place they’re at present situated.
Simply seven of the so-called Computerized Public Bathrooms, or APTs, have been put in citywide, in line with the town’s Division of Transportation. Two have been added since 2022 — in Williamsburg and Purple Hook — with one other deliberate for West Harlem later this yr.
No Park Rest room a Headache for Mother and father
Diego Rivera, 35, stated the seasonal toilet closure creates predictable complications, particularly together with his younger son.
“It’s open for a few months, after which they take a extremely lengthy break in the course of the winter,” he advised THE CITY, referring to a toilet at one hundred and fifth St. by Riverside Park.
Throughout colder months, foot visitors thins out, he stated. However that doesn’t get rid of the necessity.
“With a child, greater than something, they’ll go anytime,” he stated. “They don’t maintain it like we are able to. So it sort of can occur anytime. So it’s good to have that chance of simply going someplace.”
With out it, households improvise.
“At the least there’s a few timber and there’s not that many individuals,” Rivera stated with a shrug. “He can sort of get away with it.”
Even when bogs are technically open, he added, they’re not all the time usable.
“Generally it’s vandalized, and it’s not clear, not sanitized in any respect,” he stated. “Open them, however preserve them as much as a normal. In any other case, is it even higher to do it outdoors?”
Rivera stated entry to fundamentals like bogs and water fountains shouldn’t be controversial. “It’s one thing that all of us do,” he stated. “Regardless of who you’re, the place you’re from.”
With extra reporting from Lilly Sabella.
