Public Restroom Update -RIOC Responds

RIOC President Steve Shane responds to the issue of public access to existing Roosevelt Island bathroom facilities at the Tram and Octagon Soccer field.

FYI. Per our personnel at the Tram:
The bathrooms at the Roosevelt Island Station are accessible to the
public at any time. But for security reasons the bathrooms are locked at
all times. When somebody needs the bathrooms any one of the cabin
attendants or a tram employee will open the door upon request. In this
way we control who is going into the bathrooms. At the Manhattan side
they are closed to the public because the homeless were getting into the
bathrooms and locking themselves in. Once we had a homeless person
molesting a woman that was coming to use the bathroom. For this reason
we keep the Manhattan Station out of reach from the public.

The Comfort Stations located by the Octagon Soccer fields are open:

M - F
Open 11:00 - 11:30am
Close 9:00 - ( if there is a game in progress 10:00pm)
Sat & Sun
Open 10:00 - 10:30am
Close 9:00 - ( if there is a game in progress 10:00pm

In regard to the lack of public restrooms and the possibility of additional bathroom stations Mr. Shane states:

FYI. We are looking at the possibilities of either permanent or
portable facilities.

Please let me know and contact RIOC directly if you find the restrooms closed during the times they are supposed to be open. The RIOC directory with employee phone numbers and email addresses is here.

The picture above is from the 34th Street automatic public toilet in Herald Square which cost fifty cents per visit.