phgaming New Yorkers Deserve More Public Restrooms

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 aroundphgaming, 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.

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