Inside the Irving Square restroom in Brooklyn. The stainless-steel bathroom includes a toilet, hand sanitizer, baby changing station, and slatted openings for ventilation and safety.
Photo by NYC Parks / Daniel Avila.
NYC is flushing money down the toilet — at least figuratively.
Just as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced at the start of his term in January a $4 million pilot program for new, prefabricated modular public toilets, plans for a restroom of this kind has already been languishing for nearly three years in Manhattan’s Discovery Playground in Fort Washington Park, The City reported on March 16.
“This bathroom has been in purgatory with design changes and legal reviews,” Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, which manages the Washington Heights green space, told the news outlet.
Mamdani, flanked by NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin, said at his Jan. 10 press conference in Harlem announcing the multi-million dollar program that his administration will “majorly scale up the number of public restrooms” in the city.
“Right now, there are nearly 1,000 public restrooms in NYC. That is one public bathroom for 8,500 residents,” the mayor said.
However, as the New York City Economic Development Corporation began taking bids for toilet designs, Fort Washington Park has been waiting since 2022 for its promised loo.
“Meanwhile, construction costs are going up, and there’s still no bathroom at this location,” Birnbaum said in The City report.
NYC Parks is committed to the Fort Washington Park project
The $3.5 million pilot at Fort Washington Park aimed to integrate new restroom facilities into a park environment, serving as a test case for future, similar designs. However, the plan encounters some design challenges along the way, a NYC Parks spokesperson told amNewYork.
“The Fort Washington Park location has posed unique challenges, but we’re continuing with this project and will keep the community informed,” he said.
The site’s unique conditions extended its permitting process. Because it could not connect to the city’s sewer system, a sanitary holding tank was required. On top of that obstacle, its proximity to a flood zone also required additional structural design for both the tank and building.
According to NYC Parks, all permits have been secured, and the project is in the procurement phase. The estimated completion for procurement is March 2027; construction would follow.
Successes in public bathroom building
The Fort Washington case is in stark contrast to other prefab restrooms in the city, notably at Lopez Playground in Park Hill on Staten Island, which won an architectural design award this year. The American Institute of Architects New York Design Awards recognized the restroom for its modular construction.
NYC Parks said its Portland Loo facilities — stainless-steel single-stall public bathrooms installed around the city last year — have been successful. Some New Yorkers who spoke with amNewYork last summer about them raved about the potties; others cringed at the $1 million-a-pop price tag.
“We’ve heard the calls of New Yorkers for more public restrooms, and the purpose of this pilot was to test new ways to deliver restrooms more efficiently,” the parks’ spokesperson said. “We’ve had success with prefabricated construction in other sites such as Lopez Playground on Staten Island — which recently won a prestigious design award — and five Portland Loo locations.”
Efforts to expand public bathroom access across the city have gone through fits and starts for 20 years. In 2006, the then-Bloomberg administration reached an agreement with Cemusa to install 20 automated public bathrooms across the city. But the plan would be stymied for years. As of 2022, The City reported, just five of the modular devices had been installed; the other 15 were still in storage.
Less than 1% of the proposed budget is allocated to city parks
Despite the success story of some city flushers, the Fort Washington restroom delay is a stark reminder of the state of the city’s parks.
Though the mayor’s ambitious pilot program from January promises self-cleaning, “high-quality” restrooms that do not require a sewer hook-up, New Yorkers report parks’ bathrooms that are often closed or in disrepair.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined City Council Speaker Julie Menin and others in West Harlem on Saturday to announce that his administration would expand access to public bathrooms, starting with a $4 million commitment. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
On Feb. 17, Mamdani announced his proposed $127 billion preliminary budget, allocating just 0.5% to the city’s green spaces. That amount is significantly lower than the 1% he promised on the campaign trail for parks.
The mayor appeared to defend his budget while acknowledging the city’s shoddy public restroom layout during an unrelated press conference on Monday.
“The budget that we have put forward is our preliminary budget and we will also be putting forward an executive budget, and then finally an adopted budget in negotiations with the council,” he said. “We know that parks play an incredible role in our city. We also know that New Yorkers very much need more public bathrooms.”
He also said he would use a multi-tactic strategy to alleviate the city’s bathroom shortage, employing various tactics for both park-based and non-park locations.
“We are going to be taking an all-of-the-above approach when it comes to not only fixing bathrooms but creating new public bathrooms in the city,” he said.