The most elusive New Yorker is the public bathroom, and the problem has only gotten worse since the MTA shut down subway restrooms at the beginning of the pandemic. But for a brief moment last week, it seemed as if there might actually be a few places for riders to pee: The MTA posted a list of public facilities across the subway system — Yankee Stadium, Atlantic Avenue, Fulton Center, Union Square, and Jackson Heights. Were people finally getting some relief?
No! By the next day, the page was gone. In its place, the site displayed the words “Access Denied” (which is also what we might say to ourselves when trying to use a subway bathroom). AMNewYork reporter Kevin Duggan tweeted that the MTA told him the announcement was an “error,” it has “no plans right now to reopen station restrooms, and this website was taken down.” (State Senator Jessica Ramos is trying to get more insight into the closures, too: Streetsblog reported this week that Ramos had a heated back-and-forth with MTA chairman Janno Lieber, pushing to reopen them.)
In the meantime, if you want to look at all the bathrooms you can’t use, an archived version of the MTA’s list still lives here.
