Eight years and holding. That’s a long time to wait for a bathroom, but that’s just what’s happening in Downtown Flushing.
In 2007, the city signed an agreement with Cemusa, a Spanish company, to build and maintain 20 automatic public toilets around the city. Flushing was to get one of two planned for Queens.
The other one for the borough, in Corona Plaza, was erected in 2008. Nothing was heard again about the Flushing site, in Lippman Plaza, a pedestrian connector for Roosevelt Avenue and 39th Avenue.
Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7, said she had received no updates on the project since CB 7 and then-Councilman John Liu requested it in 2007.
The public facility was also lobbied for by the Flushing Business Improvement District. Current BID Executive Director Dian Yu, when contacted by the Chronicle, had never heard of the toilet and was interested in more information. “I would like to know more about it because we do need a public facility in Downtown Flushing,” Yu said. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
According to officials at the Department of Transportation, which handles all street furniture such as toilets, newsstands and bus shelters, the Flushing site was approved but there have been delays, though no specifics were given by the DOT.
12 comments:
How in the world would they fit a bathroom at Lippman plaza ?
In the bank parking lot ?
Remove the trees ?
Remove the Halal cart ?
Everything, E V E R Y T H I N G ! DOT touches turns to shit. In the sea of bureaucratic incompetence they are a standout...
This cemusa contract has been a parasitic waste of money when there are oak trees anywhere.
And the MTA provides us with ample space to drain the kidneys
Excuse me, nature is calling again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HwWwVT3B5U
Fortunately there's a Starbucks on Main Street now, so that's a de facto public toilet.
It is the business of the BID to keep informed about past requests and current situations. Clearly Dian Yu is out of touch . The ornamental Flushing BID is not doing its job. Stringing up a few holiday season lights is window dressing to hide all the real problems Flushing faces each day.
Good luck with that. The one at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn is always broken.
1. Starbucks, Chipolte, and other chains are cracking down on people using their terlets. You have to use the code printed on your receipt to access the bathrooms in many of their NYC stores (tho it's certainly easy enough for someone to pick a receipt out of the trash if they are desperate).
2. I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of these Flushing flushers (sorry, couldn't resist!). Fortunately it will only remain an idea, I'm sure. In my experience, public bathrooms in the city get grungy very quickly. And has anyone ever visited the bathroom in the Roosevelt Ave train station? I myself have not, but my husband tells me stories (such as the time he walked in to find a guy dropping a deuce in the sink, and another in the garbage can... this when the toilets were actually working; I guess when you are drunk/high enough it is easy to mistake a sink or trash can for a toilet, or more likely, they just don't care).
3. The ONLY way that a public toilet in Queens will remain usable is if there is a guard and/or cleaning person assigned to it every second it is open. But I doubt that is in the budget.
"You'll just have to hold it"
In Flushing, it's easy to find someone who'll hold it for you. wink wink
I don't know why anyone would worry about where they take a leak or drop a log in FRUSHING. Have you taken a wiff of the gray water running down the street gutters in July in FRUSHING. If the city can't be concerned about food waste and grease being flushed into the gutter on a daily basis why would they care where anyone pisses or shits?
re: starbucks bathrooms, using codes from the receipts? thats kind of excessive. most places that don't want non-customers using their bathrooms usually have a key they have to ask for.
plus i don't feel bad if i have to run in to starbucks to use the bathroom, as i've spent money there on many occasions without using the bathroom, i would think it evens out!
LOL--They go up the LIRR stairs to crap & pee, who's to watch ? All stinky "spots" on that platform, ramps and steps !
The MTA sucks, bunch of racketeers, almost all the machinists on the magnaflux machines have cancer and are dieing at the Coney Island yards. A friend of mine is afraid for his life and what these people are hiding. It seems the MTA is its own entity or something and answers to NOBODY -OSHA and all them environmental people included. If they let employees die, treat and use them like condoms they certainly dont give a shit about the public !!
The feds really need to get involved.
I thought bla-Blasio was going to allow us to pee in public, as urine has disinfectant properties.
Post a Comment