With reporting by Stacie Joy
Sources tell us that there are no plans for new ones and that the old porta-potties were constantly trashed and not really the most fun things to use. So, the thinking is, Why replace them with more only to meet the same fate?
A contact at the Parks Department provided us with a porta-potty-worthy comment: "We don't know anything. No one tells us shit."
As previously reported, the restrooms in the Tompkins Square Park field house are closed due to an 18-month (or so) renovation that began last May. The porta potties arrived around the same time ... before an August relocation.
The temporary toilet situation has caused a stink from the get-go.
In February 2023, a Parks official explained that temporary toilets 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 — roughly a seven-minute walk.
By March 2023, though, Community Board 3 noted that porta potties would be on-site after all.
According to the Parks Department website, work at the field house is 27% complete, with an anticipated wrap-up date of September 2024.
For now, the 10.5-acre public park doesn't have any restroom facilities, which, predictably, has caused an uptick in sightings of (and discovery of afterward of) public urination and defecation from everyone from TSP regulars to asylum seekers waiting near St. Brigid on Seventh Street and Avenue B.
We're told that the McKinley Playground is the default public loo, though there isn't any signage anywhere to inform people of that development.
If the park remains porta-potty free, the situation will only get more fragrant this spring and summer as people will spend more time here with concerts and other warmer-weather social activities, from children's birthday parties to White Claw blanket ragers on the main lawn.
21 comments:
This is a public health issue and needs the Mayor and DOH to be informed (as if they care). It's bad enough not to have restrooms in a public park that already has problems, but there are now additional people here at the migrant processing center. Where are they supposed to go? I'm guessing the people in line there do not know where the 4th Street playground is. I wouldn't be surprised if residents didn't know about that "alternate" site either. For as long as I can remember, the city has turned it's attention away from this park and pretended we don't exist.
This is why we can't have nice things. I, for one, am relieved they are now gone. I walked past it daily on my way through the park and peeked in a couple of times. Yes, they were trashed and unsanitary, and reeked of urine and feces. Surprise. Now, that the park is only to be cleaned weekly due to budget cuts from Mayor Adams, having them remain would have been a really bad idea. I do feel bad for many who are in dire need of using one when mother nature calls, but until the restroom renovations are complete, Trader Joes or Starbucks might be the only solution.
Now THIS is a blame the mayor issue.
This is ridiculous and will just lead to more people using the bushes for lack of facilities , that includes our children along with the new immigrants. What is wrong with our government?
I feel bad for those Starbucks employees
I cannot understand how one of the wealthiest, most visited cities in the entire world, hence, New York, fails to install more public bathrooms. It's pathetic. Look to Paris who offers the most public bathrooms in the entire world. Anyone can walk into a restaurant, bar or store and just use it with no problems. There are facilities dispersed everywhere outside. This is prominent throughout Europe. NYC needs to take lessons from abroad.
Many local businesses here won't allow one to use their facilities unless they are a patron. Every human should be able to visit the bathroom when in need. Where in the fuck does our city and state taxes go to? It should be going back to citizens and the public. My concern moving forward are the migrants and homeless who will use Tompkins Park as a proverbial toilet to relieve themselves, especially as the warmer months arrive. Great job, Adams.
New Yorkers/Americans aren’t Parisians, fam.
If you saw the recent vile photos published in the Post, I don't blame the city for removing them. They are built to sustain neighborhood use, not a migrant crisis.
The city is sending migrants down here to St Brigid’s School with a particular date for “re-ticketing” service. The building should be required to allow those people to use the toilet while they are waiting. Then the issue is other people waiting in the park who aren’t waiting on line for service. I’m not sure what the pull is there. Is it because there are ad-hoc goods and meals available? In that case there also need to be ad-hoc toilets. It’s ridiculous that the city isn’t providing that service as well.
But the porta potties were for everyone…all the people who need a toilet and not only the migrants. It’s a big stinking mess and it’s not the EV’s fault. How hard is it for the city to set up a fucking contract to clean the goddamn toilets once a day. Two years of work and they thought they didn’t need to provide toilets in the first place? This wouldn’t happen in another neighborhood. I mean if they can pay, what is it, $14? a meal for an egg and moldy bread and fruit, surely they could get the toilets serviced once a day.
Oh and please don’t go and trash the kids playground on 4th st. It’s tiny and really not made for more than occasional use.
Somebody gave the green light light to remove them from TSP without any other plan. Go find those people and make them sort this sh*T out.
What is your obsession with the porta-potties? Next.
The park is now unusable for neighborhood residents.
I'm sure the city contracts this out. The private firm likely felt it wasn't worth the mess.
The mayor cares nothing about this. He has cut finding to the parks department and continues to offer breaks to real estate developers intent on making people return to empty offices vacated in the pandemic. We need someone in power to care, but as we have seen for years, this is a fantasy. Why does the city not care about Tompkins and this neighborhood?? I feel like we're screaming into the wind.
The folks hanging out in Tompkins are folks who have received a re-ticket for another 30 days in a city shelter.O or they been told there’s nothing left today and to come back tomorrow. However if they received a re-ticket it will not be until that evening or the next morning so they gave no where to go. (The city also offers them a plane to leave but it’s been reported few are choosing this option.)
As for the lack of toilets: This is clearly a policy decision to keep the migrants uncomfortable in the area and to be on their way. Not only is there no toilets in Tompkins, but most of the time they are not letting them use the working toilets inside St. Brigid’s with running water — most are sent to the backyard where there are portapotties and no toilet paper.
Ahh, a test for CM Rivera to prove her leadership skills to solve problems.
What about the center itself?? Why can't we get a few good men to ensure people are using the restrooms in there responsibly and keep the line moving?????? Am I crazy??
The shit show continues with a list of comments but no solutions. Great.
And no word or action from Stetzer and CB3. They are only seen whenever another "bakery" / bar / "restaurant" / speakeasy joint applies for a and approve the liquor license.
On the subject of the portapotties, how about the scandal of the bathroom renovations taking over a year and being somehow worthy of an entire mobile office, larger than many studio apartments to support the effort? There is no reason this project requires this ridiculously extended timetable. Get the damn permanent bathrooms done in an entirely realistic, much shorter schedule. Let's ponder that the Empire Stare building was built in a shorter time than the park bathroom renovation- what's wrong with this picture?
Shocking how uninvolved our mayor is in quality of life issues affecting NYC residents.
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