Dive Brief:
- New York City plans to spend $4 million to install and maintain 20 to 30 new modular restroom units throughout the city later this year, a city spokesperson said. A request for proposals to produce, deliver, install and maintain the units closed Feb. 24.
- The project is separate from an ongoing NYC Parks initiative that’s building 45 new public restrooms and reconstructing 43 existing ones.
- “Everyone knows the feeling of needing a bathroom and not being able to find one,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a press conference announcing the initiative. “With this new commitment to public toilets, we're ensuring New Yorkers can travel through our city with a little less anxiety.”
Dive Insight:
New York City is among a growing number of cities throughout the U.S. that have been working to expand access to public restrooms to better address health and safety concerns amid high rates of homelessness. That includes initiatives in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon.
New York City’s effort to expand public restroom access has been ongoing. According to the city, there are nearly 1,000 public restrooms in New York City, about 70% of which are in parks. The city launched an initiative in 2024 to build or renovate 82 restrooms within the park system. As of mid-December, 14 of those projects have been completed, according to a NYC Parks press release.
Progress on other efforts to expand public restroom access outside the parks has been slow.
New York City launched an effort to install 20 automated public toilets in 2006. But to date, only seven have been installed, Sam Raskin, New York City Hall deputy press secretary, said in an email. That’s due to constraints associated with the toilet designs, which require 5 to 6 feet of underground clearance to accommodate the restroom’s utilities, he said.
“That clearance is difficult to find with so much existing underground infrastructure in New York City,” Raskin said. “But Mayor Mamdani has made clear, we must deliver faster.”
Other cities have completed public toilet projects at a fraction of the price of New York’s prior public restroom projects, a mayor’s office press release said. That includes permanent standalone public toilet designs such as the Portland Loo, a public restroom design developed by the city of Portland, Oregon, that has been installed at three locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The Portland Loo has been installed in cities across the country, including nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
New York City’s modular toilets are expected to be completed by the end of the summer, according to the city’s press release.
The design and locations of the free, accessible and self-cleaning new toilets have yet to be determined, as the city is still reviewing bids to complete the work, said Raskin. One will be in the West Harlem neighborhood where Mamdani held the press conference announcing the effort.
“Access to a restroom shouldn’t depend on how much money you make or where you work — it’s basic public infrastructure,” said Mamdani in a statement.
