Some San Francisco residents say they are desperate for more public bathrooms, with locals sharing stories about how hard it can be to find one when nature calls. The conversation started on the r/SanFrancisco subreddit after one resident pointed to New York City’s new public bathroom project and wondered whether the California city could take a page from its book.
New York has begun installing 17 new modular public bathrooms across the five boroughs as part of a $4 million pilot announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
For some San Francisco residents, simply having more places to go would make getting around the city a whole lot easier.
“Would love more public bathrooms. I want to live in a place, where if I HAVE to use the bathroom, there’s one close by,” one Redditor wrote. Another pointed to how difficult finding a public bathroom can be for people with medical conditions, writing, “I honestly feel bad for people with Chrohns [sic] disease in the city. Not only are bathrooms few and far between , but even at places like restaurants they seem to be way oversubscribed.”
One resident recalled experiencing the problem firsthand while expecting a child. “I remember being pregnant and downtown and everything was closed or unsafe. It’s a real problem,” they said.
New York Begins Testing Its $4 Million Bathroom Plan
New York plans to test the new bathrooms for a year, and the first installations are getting underway this week. The 17 units will be spread across public plazas and other busy areas in all five boroughs. Visitors won’t have to pay to use them, and they’ll be open every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
According to the Mayor’s Office, each one is ADA-accessible and fully touchless, with a “running-water sink, flushing toilet, climate control and a baby-changing station.” Because the units can operate independently of the city’s utility systems, they can also be relocated when necessary.
The $4 million project also covers more than just installing the bathrooms. Throne Labs, selected through a competitive bidding process, will operate, service, and clean them. People can also use the company’s app to find the nearest bathroom, see whether it is available, and check its cleanliness rating.
New York’s approach had some San Francisco residents wishing their own city would do something similar.
“I want a Zohran Mamdani of our own,” one resident cried. “Mamdani is really setting the bar for getting things moving,” another remarked.
Someone else aimed at San Francisco’s leadership, accusing city officials of failing to address problems that better planning could fix. “The city has so many fixable problems that can [be] solved through better design and planning but we keep electing mayors who have no vision beyond using the office to enrich themselves,” they alleged.
Bathroom Access Has Already Caused Problems in California
Concerns about public bathroom access in San Francisco are not entirely new. The city’s Public Works Department previously operated its Pit Stop public toilet program at 30 locations before funding cuts reduced that number to 16. The department has since sought $9.3 million in annual funding to bring the program back to 30 locations.
Public Works also reported that 311 requests involving human waste jumped 21% after the number of Pit Stop locations was reduced. The issue became particularly noticeable during San Francisco’s Fourth of July celebration this year, when more than 100,000 people showed up for the fireworks display but had only 127 toilets available. Some attendees reported waiting as long as two hours to use a bathroom.
New York, meanwhile, intends to use what it learns from the 17 bathrooms over the next year as it works toward developing a larger public bathroom network across the five boroughs.
