All public bathrooms should be pay-to-use. Now, now, before you begin hurling obscenities at me and crying out that not only should we have free bathrooms, but we should also have more free bathrooms, let me elaborate.

Paris, 2024. Some of you may think of that year’s Olympic Games, featuring icons like the pommel horse guy and the greatest breakdancer in all of Australia. Not me. I think of public bathrooms. 

That summer, I spent about two weeks in Paris, and during my time there, I was struck by a sudden urge — the need, to put it mildly, to see a man about a horse. I was ready to hold it, but my parents insisted I make use of one of Paris’s 400 public restrooms, one of which happened to be right across the street. It was terrible. The bathroom did not lock, flush or have water coming out of the sink, and it was particularly odoriferous — a fancy word for stinky. 

Luckily, that experience will soon be brought to theaters near us. The New York City Council voted to create more public bathrooms across the city, with the goal being about 2,100 new restrooms over the next 10 years. This will decrease the ratio of public restrooms per NYC resident from one restroom per 7,820 residents to one restroom per 2,700 residents. Mayor Zohran Mamdani committed $4 million to a Request for Proposals, a formal document requesting bids from external vendors, for modular public restrooms. These restrooms will be built off-site and transported to the designated bathroom location, where they can be easily assembled. 

While more bathrooms are a good thing, I don’t like this plan at all. Though modular restrooms are known for being cost-effective and easy to build and relocate as needed, we will not see most of these bathrooms until 2035 — a long wait for bathrooms designed to be easy to assemble. And while I understand the value of cost-effective restrooms, I don’t want to see them on the streets. They won’t be cleaned or inspected, and we’ll be left with pungent and disgusting bathrooms.

Instead of trying to build as many low-quality bathrooms as possible, New York City’s government should focus on providing more high-quality bathroom experiences to the city. Take, for instance, Bryant Park’s bathroom. In a restroom complete with bathroom attendants, hands-free faucets, self-flushing toilets and a playlist of classical music and flowers, every toilet is a throne fit for a king or queen. But comfort and cleanliness aren’t free: the upkeep of the bathroom can reach up to $271,000 every year, as toilet paper and flowers must be replaced and bathroom attendants must be paid. 

Under our current bathroom framework, making more bathrooms like the one in Bryant Park is unrealistic. But we can and should change our policies. In Europe, most public bathrooms are pay-to-use. The amount isn’t much, usually somewhere between 50 cents and a Euro, but it could revolutionize public bathrooms in this city.

The New York Times reported that, in 2016, 3,266 people used the Bryant Park bathroom every day. If you multiply that by every day of the year, you get 1,192,090, a truly astonishing number of bathroom-goers. If each of these bathroom patrons had to pay just 50 cents, that would amount to $596,045 of bathroom revenue in 2016. The bathroom would pay for itself more than twice over — not to mention that paying for bathrooms would give New Yorkers something to do with the change they can’t seem to use anywhere anymore. 

And just like with fares, people who can’t afford to pay 50 cents for a bathroom should be able to register for a “free use” bathroom pass. Under Fair Fares NYC, New Yorkers ages 18 to 64 with income at or below 145% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) can receive a 50% discount on subway and bus fares. This same policy can be applied to pay-to-use public bathrooms, except New Yorkers whose income falls at or below 145% the FPL should be able to use public bathrooms for free. And the infrastructure for registering for this pass can be funded by bathroom revenue! Isn’t it amazing when everything comes together so beautifully?

Speaking of fares, didn’t Mayor Mamdani promise us all free bus rides? I would much rather have a free bus ride than a public bathroom, but that’s neither here nor there. That’s a topic for a separate Op-Ed.

Hopefully, you’ve come around to my side. As we look ahead to the New York City of our children, we need to think about what kind of New York we want to pass on to the next generation. Will we settle for the stinky, modular toilets of this administration, or fight for facilities that reflect our city’s cosmopolitan, dynamic spirit? I’ve made my choice. Have you made yours?