A resident shared an email from a Parks official, who explained that porta potties were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction."
The alternative for public use during this period: The restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School. (The official incorrectly stated that McKinley is on Avenue A.)
The other day, we walked from the center of the Park (the muddy entrance to where the lawn used to be) to McKinley.
Walking at a fairly brisk clip took us five minutes and 40 seconds to get to our temp restroom destination ...
Granted, the restrooms in Tompkins, with missing doors and toilet seats, among other things, desperately needed a makeover ... though they were suitable for prompting some nostalgia...
Hopefully, the construction workers will have access to a closer temp toilet during the reconstruction.
So roughly 12 minutes to and from, not counting time at McKinley.
Meanwhile, we've had a possible sneak preview of what's to come during the reconstruction in Tompkins Square Park. As we've reported (here and here and here), the public restrooms have been locked to the public since early November.
Parks officials told us last November that a malfunctioning boiler and a broken pipe in the basement of the field house are to blame. And the Parks Department decided to wait for the reconstruction to make the repairs.
In recent months, readers and residents have noted an uptick in people relieving themselves around the Park (photo below by Derek Berg) and between cars parked along Avenue B and Seventh Street.
A 2019 comptroller's report found that Chinatown and the Lower East Side had the highest percentage (at 40%) of parks restrooms rated as "unacceptable" in the five boroughs.“You’ve used worse restrooms than this,” I whisper to myself in Tompkins Square Park. “Remember Mars Bar?”
— JP (@jessiepeterson) May 17, 2019
So that's two summers without toilets for Park visitors (unless a local elected official can find some financing for the rental and maintenance). The city does provide toilets for the Park's major events, including the Dance Parade in May and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in August.
Perhaps adult diapers and portable toilets will become the must-have accessories for gatherings in Tompkins Square Park in 2023 and 2024.
40 comments:
If there were temporary restrooms in the park, can you imagine how'd it looked like after 24 hours and for the duration...? So practically it doesn't really matter.
Thanks for the update and much appreciated info on McKinley.
Bathrooms at McKinley aren’t always unlocked as expected. And why is this construction project slated to take so long?? It’s going to be like the playground renovations that took a year but only had workers in there a few days a month. We deserve better.
nice thompson twins ref!
At least that man isn't doing a number two in that picture. I commented on this last month when I walked home through Tompkins and saw a man relieving himself doing you know what. This closure unfortunately means more of that I am afraid. Hopefully, they will bring those restrooms back to life. 18 months is a long time though.
Ridiculous. The city treats this park worse than any other in the city and there is no respect for the residents who use the park. Bathrooms are a basic need.
And the Mars Bar bathrooms had working sinks, bar soap (believe it or not!) and toilets that flushed. Can't say that for these park bathrooms, which tells you how horrible they were.
@8:59 I believe it is a Beastie Boys reference--"Hold It Now, Hit It"--not Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now."
I was thinking of the Beastie Boys with that reference... and that's a solid TT song too.
Mars Bar reeked of urine at the front door already...
I don’t appreciate the picture of the person peeing in the park. Did they give permission for it to be used? If that were me, I would feel violated having my picture used in this way. Can’t you make the same point without singling someone out in what is most likely a vulnerable moment? I always appreciate your journalism and ethics of reporting, so I hope you know this is a rare criticism. Keep up the good work.
This is why I always carry a doogie potty bag with me. I just open it up, do my business, toss it and I'm on my way!
I have no problem with the picture.
I am a lot more offended by people peeing/pooping in front of the public, including children, than I am this photo. If we pretend it doesn't exist it doesn't go away.
when are we gonna accept that the reality of urban human existence is needing a place to piss and poo there should be public restrooms like everywhere and a whole lot of people employed to ensure they're kept safe and clean yea i know it's not practical in our times with many bigger problems to tackle etc... just putting this out there
Tompkins is being operated with the most minimal staff it has had in over 30 years. And that staff (including the Tompkins Manager) is only stationed in the park for about 3 hours a day. The rest of the time they are moved to other area parks (such as Sara Roosevelt & neighboring playgrounds) to clean up there. Let’s be clear, no matter how much money the city spends to renovate the park’s crumbing infrastructure, it’s all for naught if our district doesn’t allocate the money for staff to maintain it — including restoring a full time employees and a dedicated gardener.
The picture is fine, it's the reality we see everyday.
PS. We were able to secure additional money from Carlina to restore the main lawn which hadn’t been seeded in more than half a decade. However there is no gardener to maintain it or water it while it grows. So members of LES Ecology Center and LUNGS are being deployed to do that. We are grateful for the generous donation of their time. But let’s be clear. We crossed a line in the sand. We cannot continue maintain that park by pleading for volunteers and not properly funding for full time staff at the park.
This park needs a lot of TLC. I walked through it today on my way to Trader Joes and was reminded how barren the land is. Hardly any grass. Large patches of sand. The closed bathrooms. Why is this park so neglected when we pay such high taxes? People such as Rivera and Adams don't seem to give a flying F about us or where and how we live. ALL humans deserve a space to relieve themselves with dignity. It is frustrating when as residents we voice our ideas and concerns, yet it falls on deaf ears. I used the urinals once ten years ago when I absolutely had to go. But couldn't bear the thought of going in again due to the inhumane and unsanitary conditions of the facilities. I've seen quarters designated for animals on a farm in better shape than these bathrooms. I digress. The city refuses to care. Hopefully, these much needed renovations will make a positive impact for our community.
Unfortunately, with the very high hard drug use in park as well as drug dealing coupled w/ the unhoused situation in Alphabet city, not sure how a porto potty would do in park. Would be so disgusting in 1 day just like the public bathrooms were. Basically HELL on EARTH.
Washington Sq park has immaculate bathrooms .. so are many in Central Park. THEY all have conservancies.
Why not charge $50 cents like they do in Europe and have an attendant there so children and people enjoying park can use a clean bathroom?
I have lived in area 25 years and leave park if I need restroom.
I'm thakful that Carlina Rivera is with us! A solid leader we are lucky to have and trust. Thank you Carlina for your continued support!
@1:13- The guy peeing is doing in it plain view. It may not comport to your very delicate sense of public decorum, but this the reality of what's going on. Good work by EVG, crack on, I mean carry on.
They've been unlocked maybe 5 times over the last year. And the park is only open when school isn't in session!
Welcome to urinetown. You gotta fight for your right to peepee!
We need to resurrect the bathrooms
from CBGS’s. Those were the best,
and over all the years never heard
one story of anybody catching
disease from using their facilities.
Councilperson Rivera! How nice of you to join us.
Less parkland. Who planned the overlap with park closures in East River Park? Could this been avoided?
Agreed—they'd be a disaster.
I feel that it is inhumane not to provide public toilets in any public park, and a huge disservice to the residents of the area, and also to the employees of the Parks department who must contend with the bodily needs of those unfortunate enough to be homeless or have an uncontrollable need to evacuate.
"If there were temporary restrooms in the park, can you imagine how'd it looked like after 24 hours and for the duration...? So practically it doesn't really matter."
Spot on.
"I'm thakful that Carlina Rivera is with us! A solid leader we are lucky to have and trust. Thank you Carlina for your continued support!"
Nice parody post especially "thakful". Well done. See "Three Year Letterman" at
@3YearLetterman as an example of how it's done.
Unacceptable
Any renovations are futile as long as we continue to tolerate the rampant vandalism (see recent post about the squash courts). By default any "new" bathroom will look like a war zone in no time.
As for the suggestion to have an attendant and a fee, you'd need to charge several dollars for the math to work, certainly not a pipe dream price like 50 cents.
Mental note to self. Please go to the bathroom before you set out your journey here in the EV. Crisis averted.
PS 63/neighborhood school playground and restrooms closed to public when school is in session. That includes summer camp. Make sure Parks department employees keeps bathrooms clean and watch when children using playground.
Three Year Letterman has a waterbed! Well, he is making payments on one.
Doing it in plain view in front of what would normally be an open restroom and having someone covertly take and publish your picture are too very different things. I am not speaking from a place of delicacy but of showing respect to all humans and not making an example of someone in a public forum in order to make a point. That is potentially very shaming and I’m not on board. Would you want your least proud public moment to be photographed and published? I certainly wouldn’t.
Not providing porta-johns while they figure out what to do about the toilets in our park is a big FUCK YOU to our community and to the dedicated Tompkins Square Park workers who do their damnedest to keep the park in shape with a limited budget and staff.
Carlina "I don't live in that neighborhood but they elect me anyway" Rivera used her "discretionary funds" to provide $150,000 for the dude who blocks traffic with metal barriers along Avenue B, causing cars and bikers to head into oncoming traffic in order to avoid those barriers, but has done NOTHING for our park since being in office for 4+ years. (Her fellow CODA creeps who preceded her did NOTHING as well, yet the suckers keep on voting them onto the City Council.)
The result of providing NO facilities is that people will (and are already) going to relieve themselves throughout the park. The uric acid from peeing has already half-eaten the doors to the bathrooms!
Could it be that certain people want to gentrify TSP by allowing conditions to deteriorate so hat they can call for privatizing the park with a "conservancy" that determines HOW our park is used and by WHOM?
Chris Flash
Editor/Publisher
The SHADOW
A. No one could possibly identify who that is.
B. You don’t someone’s permission to photograph them in public.
@Chris Flash - I've long suspected the plan has always been to let the park deteriorate so badly, any improvement will be welcomed. Let it rot, let people move away, then let the gentrifiers swoop in and sanitize everything. It's been going on for years, the park is just the final act.
Washington Square used to be fun, with so many diverse people doing their own thing, whether that be music, performances, or just hanging out. After the "refurbishing" of that park, musicians and performers were arrested and given the boot. Now the place is just a shell of its former self. I hate to think the same fate awaits Tompkins.
Carlina Rivera has certainly made it crystal clear that she regards parks and the services they provide—recreation, relaxation, fresh air, physical and mental health—as utterly expendable. Ugh.
It's good to know about the restrooms at McKinley playground, regardless.
Where exactly are these?
And ditto about Carlina; she's like The Thing That Wouldn't Leave.
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