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The lack of public toilets is the result of Giuliani's attempt to "cleanup" the city. Since public toilets were often used by gay men and "straight " closet cases to cruise for and have sex in and for homeless people to wash up, he had many if not all of the bathrooms in parks and subways closed. Rather than enforce the law and keep the bathrooms. Clean and open for public use, the city just closed them. You couldn't tolerate those "horrible people" so everyone had to suffer. Giuliani was such an a$$ .
A female friend told me she went into a bar to use the bathrooms recently in Park Slope. She said she felt everyone staring at her as she walked through. She realized as she left she was in a gay bar and the whole place was full of men only. So I guess that's one thing you might want to check from the outside if you're concerned about stares and feeling out of place. Still, she did accomplish her objective.
Starbucks is the official de facto public toilet for New York thanks to the handicapped lobby which killed a self cleaning pay public toilet scheme because the cheapest way to do it was to have separate self cleaning toilets for handicapped next to regular self cleaning toilets. Armed with the Americans With Disabilities Act and a 1954 Supreme Court ruling on schools which stated that separate but equal is inherently unequal, they wanted one toilet for all which would have been much more expensive to produce according to the company that wanted to make them. The deal died.
There is one outdoor pay public toilet in Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue across from the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. It is wheelchair accessible. I don't know what the story is about that but making public toilets like that available can be done.
I used the bathroom at Penn Station late at night after I got off of a NJ Transit train from Trenton. I was desperate and I knew I couldn't wait until I got home (40 minute subway ride plus waiting gor the train).
Never again. Good thing I happened to have a small pack of Clorox wipes and a travel-sized can of Lysol on me; I used that to sanitize the seat.
If Giuliani had chased away the homeless people, apparently Penn Station didn't get the memo. They are everywhere in the complex including the bathrooms. The rest rooms were dirty and apparently the cleaning crew can't or won't keep up. Next time I'd rather use the facilities at Trenton Transit Center; those are better since the station and the bathrooms have been renovated (and there is a posted 30 minute limit for being in the bathrooms).
Access to the bathrooms at Whole Foods were unrestricted until the last year or so. Now you have to use a code on the receipt to access them. (I wonder what spoilsport prompted Whole Foods to institute that policy.)
The dearth of public restrooms have been an issue for decades. I agree that you should pace yourself if you will be partaking of liquid refreshment and have a plan.
The dearth of public restrooms have been an issue for decades. I agree that you should pace yourself if you will be partaking of liquid refreshment and have a plan.
That's the point. Why do I need to limit my fluid intake (summer !) just because my city Gov't doesn't give me a pot to **** in ? That's absolutely ridiculous....especially in NYC where we pay inflated prices for everything.
All you people who make faces at me when I pee on the street can kiss my you know what.
I had no idea about Whole Foods...thanks for the info. The one on 14th has been a lifesaver for me at times. You can always wait for someone to let you in....or maybe someone will be selling bathroom swipes at the door...
the NY Hilton at Rock Ctr, The Westin Times Square, Doubletree Suites have good bathrooms
J&R Music World has a row of bathrooms on the lower level of their computer/electronics store
Cosi has decent bathrooms
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Hello,I am Kate
