The release of a citywide strategy for building 2,100 public bathrooms will be delayed after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team said the task is too complicated to meet its deadline.
The legislation, dubbed the Bathroom Bill, passed the City Council in April 2025 and set out to create a comprehensive plan to double the number of public restrooms by 2035. Each relevant agency was supposed to file an updated strategic plan to maintain the network of loos by Sept. 1, with updates every four years.
But Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson sent a letter on Aug. 12 to Speaker Julie Menin saying they’re backed up.
“Given the extensive cross-agency coordination required to establish a reporting framework, compile baseline data, and develop a substantive strategy toward the law’s target of 2,120 public bathrooms citywide, I am writing to inform you that the report will be submitted after the September 1 deadline,” she wrote.
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The mayor’s team has, however, started work on the ambitious plan — including “an interagency working group” and site recommendations.
City Hall hopes to submit the report by Nov. 1, Kerson wrote.
City Councilmember Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) introduced the package of bills last year to find easier, cheaper ways to add more quality bathrooms across the city — and was looking forward to the upcoming report.
There are currently 1,066 public bathrooms in the city, and 943 are open year-round, Nurse said.
“People don’t realize there’s no particular agency or mayoral office tasked with bathrooms,” she told The City Reporter. She and some other councilmembers representing Brooklyn were briefed this month by City Hall on some of the newest bathrooms for their borough.
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Nurse said she hopes the report can identify inventive and inexpensive ways to add more public bathrooms.
“What are the new models coming out? What are places across the country, across the planet, what are they doing?” she said. “What are we doing to decrease the cost and cut down on red tape?”
Mamdani in January announced a request for proposals to build modular public bathrooms across the city. A mayoral spokesperson did not respond to questions about when the plans will be revealed.
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The post NYC Wants 2,100 Public Restrooms, but City Hall’s Bathroom Strategy Is Backed Up appeared first on The City Reporter.
