Transcript: Mayor Adams Launches "Ur in Luck," new Effort to Make NYC Public Restrooms More Accessible, Equitable

June 3, 2024

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Good morning, everyone. I'm glad everybody is here on a beautiful Monday, the day that gets New Yorkers out and about. In New York City, we are number one. We actually have the highest number of public toilets per capita in the nation, but that still is not nearly enough. 

Today we're here to celebrate and mark the expansion of our most critical infrastructure, our public bathrooms. To lead that talk and lead the expansion is our mayor, who is the king of livability in our city, Mayor Adams. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, DM. It's great to be here with BP Levine, who has talked about this over and over again. If you're a New Yorker, we all know it. The finding available restrooms is a real challenge, particularly if you have children, raising children in this city. It brings about an additional challenge. 

When you talk about improving the livability of the city, it's a holistic approach. You cannot just look at one area because it all impacts of, do you enjoy a day out? Do you enjoy being able to move around the city and enjoy everything that the city has to offer? That's what today is about. 

I love, I don't know who did it, if it was Sue or you, Meera, that came up with this catchy phrase, Ur In Luck, we love these cheesy comments, but what we're saying is that you should not have to be in luck. You should be able to move around the city and deal with some of the basic essentials of being a human being, a parent, and finding the right restroom facilities. 

We all know the hustle. I walked into many diners and said, listen, I buy a cup of coffee, man, just let me use the john, of having to find a way to figure out the codes of getting inside a place. It's just a combination of creative ways just to use the facility. We're saying no to that. Ur In Luck is real. Over the next five years, in partnership with the Parks Department, we will be building 46 new public restrooms and renovating 36 existing restrooms across the five boroughs. 

This will add to our supply of nearly 1,000 restrooms. I think Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi pointed out per capita, we do it best. I know that it has not always been the best result, but as long as we keep adding, we're going to continue to grow on the use of public restrooms of facilities. 

More than 80 of these establishments will be refurbished restrooms. There will be, in this entire initiative, 10 in the Bronx, 23 in Brooklyn, 28 in Manhattan, 14 in Queens, and 7 on Staten Island. Our improvements will range from accessibility upgrades to energy efficiency. It is crucial that restrooms are places where people can find throughout the entire city. 

All of the restrooms in the world won't do anything for us if we can't find them. We can find them. That's why we made a new Google Maps layer that you can access on your phone. This would allow you, New Yorkers, to know where to go when they have to go. 

Since even our youngest New Yorkers have needs, this is something that I think is crucial. We have already added changing tables to the public restrooms wherever feasible. We accomplished this goal three years ahead of schedule. 

We're also establishing a joint task force to help cite and fast-track approvals for our new 14 new high-tech, self-cleaning, automatic toilets on city sidewalks and plazas, thanks to the Department of Transportation. I remember last year when we sat down and started talking about this. It's good to see it move forward. 

We came into office with a clear mission, livability, public safety, and to ensure that we improve the quality of life for everyday New Yorkers. Access to public restrooms is one of those important initiatives. The new and renovated bathroom we’ll deliver over the next five years will make it easier for New Yorkers to embrace the best parts of this city, our shared outdoor spaces, and have a place to go when they have to go. 

Thank you all for coming together. Sue, we've been hanging out the whole weekend. We're going to continue to do so. Let's continue to make this a great livable city. Thank you again.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: It is New York City and we're out and about, all of us - kids, seniors, tourists, and lifers. We're on the go and we have to go. We can't let that stop us from enjoying all there is to explore and experience. 

We all know how challenging it can be to enjoy our public spaces, avenues, and parks when you're suffering from range anxiety. How far can you go and still be in range of a public toilet? This is especially true for our youngest and our oldest New Yorkers, and especially true for those New Yorkers who work outside all of the time. 

Solving this is a very real quality of life problem and it's the work of the people on this dais. I do want to, I had the pleasure of meeting Teddy this morning, really congratulate her on her advocacy and for Borough President Levine. 

We all want the same thing, more and better bathrooms and better wayfinding to get there. Next we're going to hear from our Commissioner Sue Donoghue. Parks is leading the charge on getting new, better, and novel bathrooms into all of our green public space.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Department of Parks and Recreation: All right. Thank you Deputy Mayor Joshi. Thank you Mayor Adams. What an exciting day for our city's public spaces. At New York City Parks, we know firsthand just how important our public green spaces are for building a green and livable city together. 

During the pandemic, we all saw what a vital role our public parks played in providing New Yorkers with safe, welcoming places to relax and safely connect with their neighbors. Even now that we're back from the pandemic, our public parks remain essential spaces for New Yorkers of all backgrounds. 

Every day and in all five boroughs, we see the diverse ways that New Yorkers enjoy our public parks and that support our local communities. Neighbors relaxing by a fountain or on a bench, swapping stories, teenagers getting together for friendly games of basketball or soccer, volunteers planting trees, bonding over their shared love of the outdoors, parents enjoying the fresh air with their kids, creating unforgettable memories. 

Too often, these moments in our public spaces and our parks are cut short by the uncomfortable realization “There's no restroom here and I've got to go.” I'm proud to join Mayor Adams and our partners across the administration to say relief is on the way. Currently, 69 percent of New Yorkers live within a 10 minute walk of our over 600 public restrooms citywide. In fact, New York City Parks is the largest provider of public restrooms in New York City. 

Thanks to this major initiative, we're expanding our public restrooms network to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to these vital amenities. Since this is the Get Stuff Done administration, I want to shout out some of the innovative ways that we're building restrooms more quickly and more efficiently. 

We've developed a new streamlined design for our restroom facilities that make them cheaper and easier to install. This upgraded design has a smaller building footprint, uses simplified materials, and utilizes electric heat instead of gas, meaning no gas hookup is needed. This streamlined design is now our standard design for new units across the city. 

Another innovative tool in our arsenal is prefabrication. By building restrooms off-site, we're ensuring they can be installed quickly where they're needed most. Prefabrication doesn't just save time and money, it also means a lot less disruption to the neighborhoods when they're installed or to the playgrounds like where we're standing. Since they're assembled off-site in a controlled environment, these units can also have a higher level of quality control. 

In addition to our own prefabricated units, we're also deploying futuristic Portland Loo units across the city. These ADA accessible amenities are built at just a fraction of the cost and can be used in all seasons. I'm happy to say that we began construction on this pilot initiative last month, bringing these units to all five boroughs. 

We're not in this alone. We're partnering with our sister agency, the New York City Department of Design and Construction, on design-build restroom projects that will construct six new restrooms by the end of 2026. We've also engaged the private sector to make five new restrooms available to the public through public-private partnerships, with three more restrooms in the pipeline. 

At New York City Parks, the cleanliness and accessibility of our restrooms are top priorities, and we're committed to ensuring New Yorkers can enjoy their time outdoors with comfort and with convenience. When nature calls, the Parks Department answers. From extending the lifespan of existing restrooms to constructing brand new, innovative public facilities, we're making a major investment in our city's living infrastructure. 

I'm so grateful to Mayor Adams, our partners across the administration, and of course our own hard-working Parks staff for their dedication to this important goal, and in particular our Parks Capital team, many of whom are here today. Thank you all so much.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: All right, thank you very much, Commissioner Donoghue. I want to just note also when our restrooms aren't in our parks, they're on our streets, so a big thanks to DOT and Commissioner Rodriguez for all of the public toilets that around the city on streets and often outside of parks as well. 

Also for the work about getting things built cheaper and faster. We're in Albany right now advocating for more construction tools that will allow us to do just that in addition to design-build, which we have progressive design-build and CM-build. Before the session ends, we hope to make some progress there. 

Next, I'd like to bring up Borough President Levine, who has been an immense advocate for New Yorkers, especially those wandering the streets of Manhattan in search of relief.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Excuse me, allergies this time of year. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner Rodriguez. Thank you, Commissioner Donoghue. 
A special thank you to Teddy Siegel, who has used her voice to create a movement, which I think we can say is international at this point, to elevate the need for more public bathrooms. Give it up for Teddy Siegel. She is amazing. Also by the way, a very talented opera singer. I don't think you're singing today, but you could. You could. 

There's no shame in admitting it. We've all been caught out there. It's a fact of life. When you got to go, you got to go. That is true whether you are going to work, whether you're a tourist moving around the city, whether you're hanging out in a park. It's especially true if you are pregnant, if you have little kids, if you're a senior, if you have certain medical conditions that require you to have access to bathrooms. This is what it means to be human. This is a public health question, and it's about the livability of our city. 

We've been talking about this for decades. If you know anything about local government, you know that creating new public bathrooms is fiendishly difficult. It is a really big deal that we're announcing today 46 newly constructed public restrooms for parks over the next five years, 36 newly renovated public restrooms in our parks. If you wonder what that means for a park, we're here in Frederick Johnson Playground. Look at these beautifully renovated restrooms. They're awesome. Members of the press, check them out on your way out. 

Shout out to [Mr. Wims] who maintains these. We were chatting earlier, and he talked about how this had transformed this playground. Of course, by giving the kids and the families a wonderful new place to use the restroom. 

As if all that weren't enough, our Department of Transportation is going to start a process to identify locations for 14 new public bathrooms on our streets and sidewalks. This is huge, and it's going to be made even more impactful by a new map being launched on Google Maps – you know something about that, Teddy, don't you? That will help New Yorkers know where the restrooms are. 

MTA just reopened a few weeks ago 61 public bathrooms, well 62 if you count men's, 122 if you count men's and women's, all over the city in subway stations. Most people who ride the subways don't know that. These are going to be on the map, right? This is going to be an incredible service of public information. Congratulations to everyone who helped make this happen. New Yorkers, Ur In Luck.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, I want to introduce Teddy, who is a bathroom influencer. Like anything, advocacy plays such an important role in government and government policy and brings us to days like today. Thank you very much for your work.

Teddy Siegel:. Thanks for having me. Good afternoon. I am Teddy Siegel, and I'm the creator of Got2Go NYC, a social media-based mission dedicated to sharing accessible bathroom locations, as well as breaking down the stigmas surrounding bathroom access. 

I created Got2Go in July of 2021 after nearly having an accident in Times Square. Since then, my community has grown to over half a million people, and my bathroom map is Google's largest and most frequently used map in the world, having garnered thousands of locations and thousands of editors. 

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. I am so excited that the city is taking action to tackle this crisis by renovating and building bathrooms throughout the city, as well as the new Google Maps layer. 

It is my hope that one day, New York City will be a place where everybody has access to a safe and sanitary toilet whenever they've got to go. Thank you. 

Question: Mayor Adams, you could argue one of the biggest criticisms of public bathrooms is that they're dirty, they're messy, and people just don't want to go there. They're pretty gross. With Parks cuts, how can we expect, or how can New Yorkers expect with these new bathrooms that they can stay clean and usable? It's great if there's more bathrooms, but if they're gross and dirty, nobody's going to want to use them. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, and the Commissioner will talk about it, but it starts with us. Mom used to say, “Boy, pick the seat up.” We need good etiquette, and our practices should be that, hey, folks are coming after us. You want to come into a clean bathroom, leave a clean bathroom. Sue, you want to talk about that? 

Commissioner Donoghue: Absolutely, Mr. Mayor, and it is a core part of our mission, absolutely, to have clean bathrooms. We rate ourselves very closely. We have PIP inspections. Our bathrooms are cleaned on a daily basis. We've got incredibly dedicated park staff. Borough President Levine pointed out, the gentleman here in this playground who maintains the bathrooms, it's absolutely a core part of our mission that we'll continue to be laser focused on. 

Mayor Adams: Michael, how are you? 

Question: I'm good. There was a story I read, I think it was about a week ago, about how Rita Joseph was, I think, thought there was a need for more bathrooms that are currently in the pipeline. Could you guys address that? 
I'm a little unclear on all the details about it, but it seemed to me like there's been this call for more and there's some issues on your end in terms of doing that. Can you guys walk me through what the deal is with that and what the ultimate goal is on how many?

Mayor Adams: Sue,  if you want to touch on that? There has been always this well-kept secret among council persons that you fund a bathroom in your eight years and it doesn't get built into previous administrations. 

That's what Sue talked about when she said prefab, when she's talking about using other ways of self-cleaning. There's just been this real stall when it came to building bathrooms. It cost a lot, it took too long, and it never really materialized. I'm sure the borough president will tell, as a former council person, we heard all the time from council people, you fund it in your year and it's administrations after, and that's what we're tackling. Is there anything else?

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you. This administration is committing $150 million to new bathrooms across the city. As was pointed out earlier, we're going to have 46 brand new public bathrooms in the city in the next five years. 

We recently did an extensive inventory of all our assets across the city. Today, almost 70 percent of New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a bathroom. What we're looking to do is be really strategic and targeted where we're adding bathrooms, and we want that number to get closer to 85, 95 percent of New Yorkers. 

This initiative and what we're announcing today is very much highlighting all the different ways that we're looking to, as the mayor said, streamline production of those bathrooms, make construction quicker, easier, cheaper. With this investment in our bathrooms, with the work of our great capital team at the Parks Department, we're ensuring that there will be more bathrooms for more New Yorkers within this administration.

Question: Two quick bathroom questions. One, the city issued a report last year, noted that one of the zip codes next to City Hall is one of the three in the whole city without a public restroom. If members of the public are downtown, can they use the wonderful facilities at City Hall if they need to? 

The second question is, there's a bill in the council that would amend the city charter that would greatly increase the number of public restrooms. You just convened a Charter Commission. Is that something you'd want them to look at? Is that something you'd support?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I'm not familiar with the bill. We'll look at it. I think the Charter Commission, they're looking for ideas. They're going to be holding hearings. It's important for these ideas to come in front of them. 

City Hall is a public building. It's the people's house. It's not my house. If people need to use the people's house for their restroom facilities, I don't see why they can't. 

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I don't know if it's helpful for background, but for the sites that, DOT sites for public restrooms, they do currently have five levels of review, which is the community board, the council member, the mayor, the speaker, and the public design commission.

Question: Can we talk about how this takes the pressure off some of these mom-and-pop businesses? They put up signs that say no bathroom, we get angry about that. To what extent is that helping them? To what extent are there private businesses that should have accessible bathrooms?

Mayor Adams: I think that, first of all, I believe you're right. It is not that mom-and-pop small businesses want to be mean-spirited. It is that the bathrooms are for the customers. When you have that continuous flow into your establishment, just to use your private facility is just unfair to them. 

Everything from paying for water bills to clean, keeping your bathroom clean, the accessibility of it, that's why it is our obligation to create public restroom facilities. That's why we're doing this. It is imperative that we do the responsibilities. We should not displace that responsibility on small businesses. That's just unfair. That's why we want to make sure we get it right.

Commissioner Donoghue: I just want to add, in this playground, when we looked at, we've done extensive renovation in this playground, nearly $20 million investment. As part of that, when the capital team took a look at this space, the restroom was formerly located over in an inaccessible corner. We moved it here specifically so it was accessible to the playground, accessible to more of the public.

That's what we're doing as well. We're looking at that accessibility, making it so that more New Yorkers have relief and can enjoy these spaces. 

Deputy Mayor Joshi: There is one other area, our publicly operated private space. Those are partnerships the city does with private developers and ensuring that the bathrooms that are committed to in those spaces are open and operable. As we go forward, when we make these agreements, ensuring that they also include bathrooms is another way we can take the pressure off of private businesses. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, Parks commissioner, forgive me for going off topic here, but yesterday, a police officer and a parks officer tried to handcuff a 12-year-old at Battery Park. Do you care to comment on that? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. I saw the video. This is really the complexity that I talk about when we talk about migrants and asylum seekers and the inability for them to work. I think that we look at these individual actions and not looking at the holistic problem. 
That area has received a substantial number of 311 complaints because of illegal vendoring. It's impacting the quality of life. We hear it all the time. People are calling us and saying it gives the appearance that our city is having a level of disorder and anything, everything goes. 

The park enforcement officers must respond to that. We have to respond to complaints that are coming from citizens. The parent there is a habitual abuser of it, and she has been told several times, and she refuses to comply. Now, the Parks is doing an investigation, and we're going to do an investigation with the Police Department as well, because the police responded also. 

No one wants to see a 12-year-old handled in a way that can seem offensive or abusive. No one wants to see that. We're going to continue to get better at what we do. The larger problem here that no one wants to talk about, it is not dignified to have people unable to provide for themselves. We've been saying this for almost two years now. Let them work. 

Illegal vending is not working. It's illegal. We don't want our babies on the train selling candy. We don't want people on the highways, I drive down the highway, sometimes I have to pull over. They should not be on the highways with their children on their backs selling items. Let's let them work. That's the conversation we should be having right now. 

Why aren't we allowing able-bodied human beings that came to America to pursue the American dream, parole into the country? Why aren't we allowing them to work? We will do an investigation and see what we can do better in incidents like that. The bottom line is they were illegal vending because they're not allowed to work legally. Okay. Thank you.

###