Matthew Sweeney, an amNew York reporter, ventured where few subway riders dare to go: into the subway bathrooms. In a piece that spends altogether too much time opining on the malodorous smells emanating from these public restrooms, Sweeney notes that the MTA is closing the system’s restrooms from midnight to 5 a.m. While some late-night revelers bemoaned the new closing time and threatened to use convenient corners to relieve themselves, the MTA says they need to close them to prevent people from living in the bathrooms and to clean them.
Of course, MTA cleaners refuse to evict restroom residents. Writes Sweeney,”One cleaner said that sometimes a homeless person will refuse her request to leave bathroom, so she has to clean around them.” I’m all on board with cleaning out the restrooms, but make an effort. Get the semi-permanent residents out of there too. [amNew York]
8 comments
A major issue too is that only about a dozen stations have bathrooms. I don’t care how dirty the actual bathrooms are. Anything is better than what I had to see in a corner of the Spring Street (C,E) station yesterday afternoon.
It’s true; I saw a woman relieving herself on the lower-level platform at West Fourth a few years ago. I’m pretty sure it was during the day.
Most of the public bathrooms in the city were closed in the 70s because nobody wanted to pay people to clean them and keep them safe – and because the people making the decision could always afford other options.
It’d be nice if now we can all come together and agree that it’s a good use of public money to reopen the bathrooms, and pay for the materials, supplies and decent wages for the staff to keep them clean, safe and well-maintained. In some other cities they have full-time bathroom attendants. Why can’t we do that here?
I have never used a subway bathroom. The major problem for me is cleanliness.
As a transplant, I was never accustomed to people throwing trash everywhere and treating public places like they are trash receptacles.
I also do not understand the general attitude toward “do it wherever you are” that seems to be prevalent. I do NOT think my fare covers having to see people relieving themselves in subway cars, on platforms or in stairwells.
*sigh* I don’t know what else they can do, but perhaps a power wash would be a good start. But the grime and nastiness might be what’s holding the system together!
I’ll have to admit that it’s a total surprise to me that the subways have any bathrooms. So the fact that they’re closing them for 5 hours to clean during the least busiest time of the day is no big deal.
well where the hell are bathrooms anyway? I never even knew there were any
Since I write about the NYC subways regularly, and wrote a big tirade about NYC public restrooms:
http://www.stationstops.com/20.....nd-beyond/
I am embarrassed to say that I did not know subway restrooms even existed.
I am such a poser.
Chris
StationStops.co,
Oh and BTW if I had the job of cleaning said subway restrooms, I would definitely draw the line at evicting reluctant homeless people in the middle of the night.
That just doesn’t sound like a road you want to go down.
I think evicting homeless people from the bathrooms should be a job for the Transit Police, rather than the cleaning staff.
And the system truly should have more functioning bathrooms. Even if you would be reluctant to use them yourself, the availability of restrooms for others decreases your odds of smelling (or walking through) the urine of others.
The only bathroom I’ve ever seen in the subway system is the one at Times Square, and I’ve never used it myself.