Bathrooms at Lou Lodati Playground in Sunnyside
June 28, 2019 By Shane O’Brien
Public bathrooms in Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City are among the worst in New York City, according to a report released Thursday by the Comptroller’s office.
The report, titled Dis-comfort Stations: The Conditions and Availability of NYC Parks Bathrooms, found that 25 percent of the bathrooms at City parks in Community District 2—which covers Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City– were in an “unacceptable” condition.
The report, which reviewed the state of bathrooms at City parks, defined a bathroom as unacceptable if it had deficiencies such as broken toilets or sinks; damaged walls or ceilings; or broken soap dispensers.
Community District 2 ranked as the ninth worst of New York’s 59 community districts. It also ranked last of the 14 community districts in Queens.
Meanwhile, in Jackson Heights and North Corona, there are hardly any public bathrooms at City parks at all, according to the report.
Queens Community District 3, which covers Jackson Heights and North Corona, was found to have just 12 public bathrooms, equating to 7 bathrooms per 100,000 residents. The district was the eighth worst in the City on a per capita basis, according to the report.
Stringer said that the availability of public bathrooms in New York City parks was “embarrassing,” noting that the city ranked 93rd among America’s 100 largest cities in terms of availability of public bathrooms.
In total, there are just 16 bathrooms for every 100,000 residents across New York City. In St. Paul, Minn., the highest ranked city, there are 210 bathrooms at city parks for every 100,000 residents.
“Every neighborhood, including in low-to-moderate-income areas, deserves quality public spaces,” Stringer said. “NYC Parks must expand the number of bathrooms in neighborhoods in need and provide the resources to bring existing facilities up to standard.”
The report noted that 14 percent of parks are not open year round in Queens, compared to 11 percent across the City. Additionally, 67 percent of bathrooms in Queens are not ADA accessible, in line with the City figure of 69 percent.
Additionally, the report noted that 73 percent of bathrooms across the city lack changing tables for infants and toddlers. A number was not listed for Queens.
Stringer says that the City needs to increase the amount it spends on maintaining the bathrooms at City parks and that it needs to build new ones. He said that it is time for the City to come up with a comprehensive plan.
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21 Comments
Would you want to use those changing tables? Now you have to bring Lysol wipes along with the baby wipes.
The parks workers do very little and there is constant turnover. They can often be found relaxing, talking on their phones or sleeping in their little office next to the bathrooms at Lodati. Rats have become a big problem in the park as well, and despite numerous complaints the parks dept has done nothing. That extra $ in the budget will not find it’s way to parks like ours. It will get spent on places like central park, prospect park, etc.
where is our tax money going? who is stealing from us? obviously i know its deblasio and his corrupt cronies, but we need more names. we are taxed too heavily.
copy and paste that generic rant on a different article maybe?
The poor conditions of these bathrooms pisses me off
Bathrooms suck, but we have bike lanes!
The quality of these parks overall went down over the years. Park managers and cleaners don’t even show up anymore.
(Side question: during the winter, how come bathrooms are always closed?)
They don’t even shovel snow on the surrounding sidewalks in the winter!
The best toilets are in Flushing.
She wants her joke back.
Who’s that? Are you 60 years old?
She was working at a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens.
We need better pubic bathrooms now!
Cats supporters must be mad because Caban is going to win.
Dog supporters are pretty happy though
What about ferret supporters? Or Bearded dragon supporters, ? How they feeling? Because a lot of Cabán supporters are gonna be disappointed when they see the people who mug them back on the street 2 hours later, threatening them for calling the cops on them. It’s coming,
> when they see the people who mug them back on the street 2 hours later
Can you imagine being this gullible?
Yup, I have seen them throughout the neighborhood and they hang out inside the Sunnyside library as well. We must recommend they go down to the New LIC Hunters Point library when it opens so they can sit on the new sofas, would be a great addition to the JVB constituency and his dream library.
There are public bathrooms?
Yep…Anywhere you wanna go, just go! No more enforcement. So just squeeze away!
I thought Melinda Cats just spent $29 M on parks? None of it went to the bathrooms? That’s not chaaaange!