68 park bathrooms are closed, some for a decade. What Parks has told the Council about fixing them

Sixty-eight bathroom buildings in city parks are closed right now, and nine have been shut for at least nine years, according to Parks Department records obtained by THE CITY. Only three of those nine have a capital repair project scheduled.

Why it matters to residents: for families at a playground or people who work outdoors, a locked comfort station can mean there is nowhere to go. The Parks Department runs more than 700 restroom buildings, and a spokesperson told THE CITY that nearly all of them are open every day, all year. The agency said it is on track to finish renovations or new construction at 14 restroom buildings this year.

THE CITY found that restoring a single comfort station can cost $5 million to $7 million. That is about what a Council member gets for an entire year of capital projects in their district. Parks has no dedicated budget line for restroom repairs. In-house trades staff handle fixes as part of general maintenance, the agency said. Ty Hankerson, who chairs the Council's Parks Committee, told THE CITY the closures are "not only a big inconvenience."

What our records add

Parks gave the Council its own cost estimates in March. At the Parks Committee's preliminary budget hearing on March 23, the Parks commissioner said reconstructing a restroom can start around $2.5 million, and a new building typically costs $3 million to $5 million. The commissioner said the agency now often recommends building new instead of renovating, because a renovated older building can lose stalls once it is made accessible (transcript). A deputy commissioner added that the standard new restroom has six fixtures, while many older buildings have four (transcript).

One member said her money has been sitting for years. At the same hearing, Council Member Darlene Mealy asked about a comfort station at Lincoln Terrace Park. She said she had put about $3 million toward it almost 18 years ago and, four years into her current time in office, was "still" waiting (transcript). The commissioner pointed her to the agency's online capital tracker and promised to follow up.

The Council asked what share of bathrooms are open. Later in that hearing, a member asked what percentage of park bathrooms were open. The commissioner said the "vast majority" were, and that the agency tracks closures and their causes internally every month (transcript). No figure was given at the hearing.

The Parks Committee's backlog. Our committee page shows 34 items pending before the committee, 25 of them for more than 180 days. None of them deals with comfort station repairs.

The citywide bathroom plan is late

Under the Council's Bathroom Bill, the city has to produce a plan for 2,120 new public bathrooms by 2035. That plan is overdue. Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson has told Speaker Julie Menin she hopes to submit it by Nov. 1, THE CITY reported. Separately, a $4 million modular bathroom pilot has installed 17 units since September.

Budget context: Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to devote 1% of the city budget to parks. The adopted budget gives Parks about $709 million, several hundred million dollars short of that goal, THE CITY reported. Former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the outlet that even a simple project passes through "at least a dozen bureaucratic steps." State rules such as the Wicks Law, which requires separate contractors for different trades on some public projects, add to that.

What's next

Watch for the bathroom plan due from City Hall. The Council's next look at Parks spending will come with the preliminary budget hearings in the spring. Residents can look up a specific park's restroom project in the Parks Department's capital project tracker.