Generations of New Yorkers have mastered the act of nonchalantly slinking through restaurants and hotel lobbies where they have no business in search of a toilet. But the furtive quest for relief in public may become a fading art starting this summer, now that the city has settled on a site for the first of 20 long-awaited pay toilets.
After decades of fits and starts, the city will begin a two-year rollout of 25-cents-a-flush public toilets with the first being installed in Madison Square Park in June, said Kerry Gould, who is overseeing the project for the Department of Transportation.
The department hopes to have nine more pay toilets in use by the end of the year, with the second probably going to the Bronx, Gould said.
A Spanish company, Cemusa, will install the toilets as part of a contract to provide what is called street furniture, including 3,500 bus-stop shelters and 330 newsstands, throughout the city.
Cemusa agreed to pay the city about US$1.4 billion over 20 years, which it expects to recoup from selling advertising.
In exchange, Cemusa will collect the quarters that users deposit along with any revenue from the ads on the structures, some of which will be on sidewalks or traffic islands. Those put in parks will not carry advertising, Gould said.
The 20 automated toilets, which clean themselves after each use, will be enclosed in a closet-size structure. They are not expected, however, to satisfy the demand for pay toilets.
Gould said that the department had received suggestions of 50 sites for them from City Council members and community leaders. She said employees of the transportation department were scouting sites for the toilets, which require hookups to water mains and the sewer system.
"We are hoping to have them in every borough," Gould said, adding that the department would seek the approval of local community boards.
"We certainly want them in communities that welcome them," she said.
On Thursday night, Community Board 5 passed a resolution approving the placement of the first toilet in the southeast corner of Madison Square Park.
It will be near the Shake Shack, a popular food stand (closed for the winter), which draws big crowds.
Madison Square Park, which is on the north side of 23rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues, has drawn more crowds since it was renovated in 2001, said Stewart Desmond, spokesman for Madison Square Conservancy, a public-private partnership that maintains the park.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was