In 2023, New York City had 62.2 million visitors (50.6M domestic and 11.6M international). They still haven’t caught up to their all-time high of 66.6 million visitors in 2019, but they’re certainly getting close (and considering they had 56.7M visitors in 2022, if they follow that 5+ million increase they had between 2022 and 2023 as they figure out the numbers into 2024, they’ll easily beat 2019).

New York City certainly has something for everybody: Times Square, Broadway, Harlem, Greenwich Village, SOHO, Hell’s Kitchen, Washington Heights, Central Park, you name it. But one thing it hasn’t had until now is an official, sanctioned, easy way to find a toilet when you need one (it’s not just in NYC, BTW; it’s apparently a United States thing).

My husband Joe and I both grew up in the greater New York tri-state area and were (and still are) frequent visitors to “The City.” So we know very well about the lack of clean, well-stocked public bathrooms for visitors.

NYC bathroom maps of the past

As the internet has grown, some people have taken it upon themselves to create maps of the public restrooms in New York City.

• Dr. Wasoo Im created New York Restrooms at some point before the pandemic. It was a great map – crowd-sourced, color coordinated, based on what type of place it was, and everything (Dr. Im has his PhD in Urban Planning…you could tell, right?). However, between 2021 and 2023, it appears he abandoned the project.
• Enter Teddy Siegel, an opera student at Mannes School of Music at the New School in Manhattan, who began a TikTok account called GotToGoNYC. She continues to update it to this very day. However, without a map to support the videos, it kind of makes it a little difficult to find the restrooms.
• Toodleloonyc was another TikTok-based account that highlighted public restrooms in NYC. Again, the lack of a map is not helpful, but it’s a moot point because the site’s last update was in early 2023. Whomp whomp.
• The We Can’t Wait app, made specifically for those with Crohn’s & Colitis, is available in both Apple and Android flavors, and was last updated in July, 2024.

And now, NYC’s official public restroom map

However, joy of joys, someone with some sort of power understood the needs of all the tourists who have to pee! Ladies and gentlemen, the City of New York has an official NYC public bathroom map powered by Google Maps!

If you use that QR code in the video, you’ll see it brings you to http://on.nyc.gov/restroom. That, in turn, automatically brings you to a map with every public restroom in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. It’s listed as long as it’s located in:

• A park
• A library
• A privately owned public space deemed OK to use
• A public plaza
• Transit (i.e., a subway station)

Here’s the whole city:

And if you zoom in to, let’s say mid-town Manhattan

If you click on any of the restrooms on the map, you’ll get more information about the location. So here’s what you can learn about the restrooms at the 53rd St. Library, which is on the corner of 5th Avenue and 53rd St.

Caveat: it’s not 100% ideal

I like the map – it’s easy to navigate. However, they mainly included places owned by the city. And unfortunately, some (albeit not all) public bathrooms in NYC – especially some in parks and subway stations – have a tendency not to be cleaned as well as they should be (although the one in Bryant Park is VERY well taken care of!), or you could go inside and see a homeless person sleeping in a corner, or a junkie shooting up (welcome to New Yawk!).

Toilet in the Union Square Subway stop, 2017 // PC: Justate2slices / Reddit

And unfortunately (but not surprisingly), the map doesn’t include businesses that tourists have used for years in a pinch…hotels, fast food places (we always buy a soda or something if we use their facilities), and other privately-owned places). So although it’s a help, it’s still not ideal.

But again, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

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