The lack of public bathrooms on Roosevelt Island has been a problem for many years...
When you gotta go, where do you go on Roosevelt Island? The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) may have a solution.
During the February 3, 2025 RIOC Real Estate Development Advisory Committee meeting, Acting Chief Operating Officer Mary Cunneen reported a plan to install a Portland Loo public bathroom at Firefighters Field.
According to Ms Cunneen:
... We haven't finalized the location but
probably if you're standing by the tram at the northeast corner of Firefighters Field, right where the water
fountain
is.
The proposed location next to Firefighters Field is a few feet from the Roosevelt Island Tram and Riverwalk residential buildings.
How bad are the Roosevelt Island public bathrooms and how far would you go to avoid using them when nature calls? Well, if you are the director of the movie City of Lights which shot scenes on Roosevelt Island last August, the answer is that you will go very far to find an acceptable toilet. The director described his Roosevelt Island bathroom ordeal at his blog Movies 'til Dawn:
...A funny thing happened on the evening of this shoot. I had to go to the bathroom. Now, I wouldn't normally blog an event of this low order but I'll make an exception in this case since this proves the power of the position of the director. I didn't have a trailer, you see. And the public bathrooms at Roosevelt Island were, to put it nicely, a catastrophe. So I waited for an interval when a new lighting set-up would be started -- in this case it was the tram station scene posted below--and asked my DP Vanja Cernjul how long it would take. "Close to an hour" was the answer. "Make it an hour fifteen", I replied. He was surprised. Usually the director is looking to spend less time lighting, not more. Then I found my Teamster--the driver who took me to set every morning and home every night--and told him that I had to be driven to my apartment in Manhattan, that we had just over an hour to get there and get back with a "short wait for something I have to do once we're there" factored into things. He didn't blink. Like the fine Teamster he is, he just said "Let's move".
And so I had the singular experience of commandeering a Teamster to take me to the bathroom in my apartment, which was a hell of a lot nicer than the wretched accommodations at Roosevelt Island....
No word on what Andy Garcia thought of the Roosevelt Island public bathrooms. City of Lights was not the production which is the subject of earlier post regarding RIOC President Shane threatening to arrest former RIRA President Katz for seeking a donation from a film crew for the residents association.
Perhaps RIOC members will not be threatened with arrest if they provide clean bathroom facilities in their apartments for movie crews in exchange for donations to RIRA.
Below is You Tube video clip of Roosevelt Island Tram scene reluctantly deleted from City Of Light starring Andy Garcia.
Roosevelt Islanders have been concerned with the lack of public restrooms on the Island. Here is a story from a new video real estate blogger, IntoTheBox.TV, about luxury private commodes, not toilets but commodes. Roosevelt Islanders are not asking for anything as luxurious as commode for a public restroom - but still it might become a tourist attraction itself! Via NY Sun and New York Observer The Real Estate.
A reader visiting Roosevelt Island and having any otherwise enjoyable day points out what we already know from previous posts about the necessity for public restrooms on Roosevelt Island. He also raises the issue of easily identifiable signage for the existing restrooms so that people know where they are. He writes:
Good Day: I was visiting Roosevelt Island yesterday. I basically had a nice time, residents were very friendly, but I was unable to find any public restrooms. I took the Red Bus, which has terrible service and should accept MetroCards, to Lighthouse Park. I couldn't find any restrooms there, either. I had to cut my visit short as a result. I was surprised there were few, if any, places to get a snack. Next time, I'll bring along my lunch, but the bathroom problem remains. I was in discomfort until I got home.
Did you know there was an industrial musical written as an ode to the bathroom? According to WFMU:
..."My Bathroom Is A Private Kind Of Place.' It"s from the "The Bathrooms Are Coming,' an industrial-show musical produced for the American Standard Company to extol the glories of their wonderful plumbing fixtures.
RIOC President Steve Shane reports in his Main Street Wire Column (PDF version) that:
At the suggestion of the RI Blog, RIOC is following up a DOT program to make some additional restroom facilities available, It is a competitive process, so we shall see. We understand the need and are studying possible solutions.
I am not sure if Mr. Shane is referring to Roosevelt Islander as the "RI blog" but if he is, I appreciate the mention in Roosevelt Island's paper of record, the Main Street Wire. However, for the record, the suggestion to apply for the DOT public rest room came from fellow blogger Roosevelt Island 360 as a comment to this series of Roosevelt Islander posts. He deserves the credit for identifying the particular DOT program.
Advised by RIOC President Shane that RIOC will investigate possibility of acquiring one of the public restrooms suggested in this post from NYC DOT. Together with Roosevelt Island 360, spoke with Assemblymember Micah Kellner during last Saturday's Outdoor Movie Night at Southpoint Park. Assembly Member Kellner indicated his support for having one of the NYC DOT public restrooms allocated for Roosevelt Island and that he would work with RIOC and other elected officials to get it done. Any thoughts on where the public restroom should be located? Lighthouse Park, Southpoint Park, Motorgate, somewhere else?
Fellow blogger Roosevelt Island 360 sends the following suggestion for adding additional public restrooms stating:
RIOC should work with the NYC DOT who is responsible for the current Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise (CSFF) which includes the City's goal of buying and installing 20 new public access stand alone toilets. After all this is City land we stand (and sit) on. The NYC DOT link is below.
bring automatic public toilets (APTs) to New York City. These state-of-the-art facilities offer comfort, hygiene, accessibility, and security to the public, within a modern design. Designed to self-sanitize after each use, the APTs will also be serviced twice a day for inspection and system maintenance, affording the people of New York a safe and valuable convenience.
Site Specifications The footprint of the APTs will span 6'7" x 12'. Siting Criteria include:
1. Clear Path: Automatic Public Toilets must allow a minimum clear path of 8 feet in width. 2. Clearance from Curb: All APTs must allow a straight unobstructed path of at least 1.5 feet between the APT and the curb. 3. Other Minimum Distances: 10 feet fire hydrants, standpipes 5 feet tree trunks, canopies 3 feet streetlights, traffic signal poles 2 feet ventilation, street signs, cellar doors 4. Permissible Locations: a. On wide streets, only in commercial, manufacturing or mixed use districts b. On sidewalks or plazas adjacent to property owned or leased by a government agency or public authority, or under the jurisdiction of the EDC. c. On traffic islands or public places bounded on all sides by mapped streets under the jurisdiction of the Department. d. On or adjacent to parks property of playgrounds, subject to the approval of the Department of Parks and Recreation.
and
The Department will begin to reach out to local bodies to solicit recommendations for potential locations of automatic public toilets. Because these structures must meet extensive technical siting criteria, the selection process will include extensive location surveys. Above please find information on some of the siting specifications to consider when making recommendations. If you are interested in recommending a location, please submit your recommendation in writing to CSFF via email at streetfurniture@dot.nyc.gov or contact your local community board with that request.
RIOC should work with our local community board, RIRA, Councilperson Lappin, Assemblymen Kellner, State Senator Serrano and Borough President Stringer to allocate one of these public restrooms for Roosevelt Island. If you think adding an additional restroom is an important quality of life issue for Roosevelt Island please send an email to the officials listed above. Links to their respective web sites and email addresses are provided above or in the sidebar. Good job by Roosevelt Island 360.
RIOC President Steve Shane on possibility of additional public restrooms for Roosevelt Island.
Will let you know the outcome of our review on public restroom facilities. Problem with portables is that they are subject to vandalism. Trouble with permanent facilities is that they cost a fortune with infrastructure, ADA, building code requirements. We are reviewing.
Do we have any experts able to offer assistance to RIOC in finding an affordable, vandal free and ADA compliant public restroom? For those still interested in additional information on topic, there is an American Restroom Association that is "America's advocate for the availability of clean, safe and well designed public restrooms", The Bathroom Diaries which lists and reviews public restroom in NYC and The Privy Council, "a group of New Yorkers who see the need for a working system of public toilets for our otherwise great city".
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.
Update - RIOC President Steve Shane provides the following comment regarding issue of public restrooms on Roosevelt Island:
I'm having our grounds and engineering folks look at the problem. Be back to you reasonably soon. Thank you and the poster for calling this to our attention.
RIOC should be congratulated for being responsive to this issue. This is a great example of resident's using Roosevelt Islander to identify and resolve important issues regarding the quality of life here on the Island. Let's continue to do this with other issues and see what we can achieve.
What do you think of the see through toilets above? The person inside can see out but people on the outside cannot see in.
A concerned reader sends in the following comment that I have heard from several others as well as observed myself:
I'm a resident of Roosevelt Island and love living here very much. I walk a lot and have noticed this past year, that in some areas, the sweet smells of the salt water wafting from the river have been replaced with the revolting smells of urine. I, quite frequently, see men ducking behind bushes and around corners of buildings to relieve themselves. Uncomfortable for me, and them I'm sure when spotted. I've also been approached several times by women, visiting the island for the day either picnicking at Lighthouse Park or here to play sports, asking where the restrooms are. The answer is obvious if you're near Octagon park. I direct them to the public restrooms, which seem to be locked more often than not. What about the people at Lighthouse Park? Where are they suppose to go? At the moment, the majority of them use the back parking area of Coler as their personal restrooms, men and women alike. There is one port-a-potty near there that is locked all of the time. Can we install port-a-potties down there that are available to the public or better yet a more permanent facility? I understand that port-a-potties are not the most attractive solution, but a solution non the less. I love our island and want our visitors to respect our little paradise, and not piss all over it.
The above picture is of the Mannekin Pis, a Brussels Belgium landmark that I saw many years ago but never thought would one day be used to illustrate a point of concern to Roosevelt Island. It just goes to show that one never knows when some piece of information learned long ago could be of use.
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
