NEW YORK (AP) — Busting to go in the Big Apple? Some relief is on the way.
New York City is not only getting more public toilets, but making them easier to locate using your smartphone.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday a plan to build 46 new restrooms and renovate 36 existing ones located in city parks, adding to the city’s roughly 1,000 such facilities over the next five years.
The Democrat said the city has also developed a new Google Maps layer so people can easily find the locations of every public restroom operated by government agencies and civic institutions, including libraries and at transit hubs.
“Part of making New York City a more livable city is tackling the little things — the things we don’t think about until we need them,” Adams said in a statement launching the effort, which his administration has dubbed “Ur in Luck.”
The lack of public restrooms has long been a problem in a city where more than half of households don’t own cars and hoards of tourists go sightseeing by foot and subway. It can be especially difficult for parents of young kids, pregnant women, seniors and people with medical conditions, officials noted at a news conference.
New Yorker Teddy Siegel created a now hugely popular social media account and online map dedicated to public bathrooms in the city “after nearly having an accident in Times Square” in 2021. She welcomed the additional amenities Monday.
“Over the past three years, I’ve learned from my community that New York City’s lack of publicly accessible restrooms is not only a quality of life and public health issue, but it’s an equity crisis,” said Siegel, whose own crowdsourced got2gonyc map lists more than 2,000 places to find a facility.
The mayor said 28 of the new or renovated restrooms will be in Manhattan, 23 in Brooklyn, 14 in Queens, 10 in the Bronx and seven on Staten Island.
The existing restrooms being renovated will receive improvements ranging from additional stalls to accessibility upgrades, as well as energy efficient features, Adams said.
The Google Maps layer will be updated biannually and will include restrooms operated by the city parks department, local transit agencies and the city’s library systems, he said. Data on the city’s public restrooms will also be available on Open Data.
Last month, Adams’ administration said baby changing tables were installed at all city park restrooms where it was feasible.
“Public bathrooms are essential to a well-managed and welcoming public realm,” the Alliance for Public Space Leadership, a local advocacy group, said in a statement. “They allow New Yorkers to use public space more often and for longer.”
