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Times Square Toilets


By

Jen Chung

Published Jul 23, 2004

Modified Mar 6, 2008


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By

Jen Chung

Published Jul 23, 2004

Modified Mar 6, 2008


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Times Square toilet signage; Photo: SubText

Sure, there are things more exciting than the prospect of public bathrooms in the Times Square subway station, but are they more practical? Gothamist really took a shine to the NY Times look at the day-to-day running of the bathrooms, and really loved one of the employees who lets people into the bathrooms (there are for bathrooms, and you get buzzed into them), Maria Torres:

"On my watch, everybody behaves," Ms. Torres said as she inspected the bathrooms for any suspicious packages left behind. "So far, the Taliban have not arrived at the toilets."

SubText visited the bathrooms and has more pictures (the above photo of the signage is from SubText), noting, "...while not the cleanest place in the world, the [bathroom] I entered (door #3 if you care) was cleaner than many NYC restaurant restrooms." Good to know! Thanks, Boston Properties for putting the bathrooms in and thanks, Times Square Alliance, for the people watching over them! And Gothamist laughs at the idea of going into bathroom #1 or bathroom #2...

The Post called the public bathrooms a triumph; the Times had a good editorial about the long-awaited public toilets, which are being stalled (haha!) because their introduction is being tied to the overhaul of newstands and bus shelters (Gothamist last year looked at the possibility of new public toilets).

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Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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