By Gus Saltonstall
It is an all too familiar feeling. You’re out and about on the Upper West Side, and all of a sudden, you have to use the bathroom.
What isn’t always so easy, is figuring out where you’ll be able to find relief.
Now, the city is looking to lend a new helping hand when it comes to the public-bathroom front.
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams launched the “Ur in Luck” campaign to make public restrooms more accessible and equitable. Along with a commitment to build 46 new public restrooms and renovate 36 existing ones over the next five years, the city also launched an interactive map that shows the location of every public restroom operated in the five boroughs.
“Part of making New York City a more livable city is tackling the little things — the things we don’t think about until we need them,” Adams said in a press release. “Access to public restrooms is high on that list, maybe even number one or two.”
There are 26 public bathrooms operating on the Upper West Side from West 59th to 110th streets, according to the city. Those bathrooms are almost exclusively operated by the Parks Department or the New York Public Library.
Here are all the Upper West Side locations. Let us know in the comment section if the map is missing any.
Upper West Side Public Bathrooms
The Anibal Aviles Playground: 111 West 108th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Fully Accessible
The Great Hill: Central Park near West 105th Street
- Operator: Central Park Conservancy
- Open seasonal: 7 a.m. to dusk
- Not accessible
Ellington in the Park: Riverside Park near West 105th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Seasonally open: Unspecified hours
- Accessibility unspecified
The 101st Street Soccer Field: Riverside Park
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessibile
Bloomingdale Playground: Amsterdam Avenue near West 104th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessibile
Frederick Douglass Playground: Amsterdam Avenue near West 101st Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessibile
Bloomingdale Library: 150 West 100th Street
- Operator: NYPL
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
Happy Warrior Playground: 779 West 97th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
Dinosaur Playground: Riverside Park near West 97th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
Hippo Playground: Riverside Park near West 91st Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
Sol Bloom Playground: West 91st Street between Columbus and Central Park West
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
River Run Playground: Riverside Park near West 82nd Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
St. Agnes Library: 444 Amsterdam Avenue near 83rd Street
- Operator: NYPL
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
Tecumseh Playground: Amsterdam Avenue and West 78th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
Neufeld Playground: Riverside Park near West 76th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Not accessible
Classic Playground: Riverside Park near West 75th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Fully accessible
Matthew Sapolin Playground: 270 West 70th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Fully accessible
North Riverside Boulevard and Slopes: Riverside Drive near West 69th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Accessibility not specified
Tavern on the Green: Central Park near West 67th Street
- Operator: Tavern on the Green
- Open year round from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Accessibility not specified
Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center: 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
- Operator: NYPL
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
Riverside Library: 127 Amsterdam Avenue near 65th Street
- Operator: NYPL
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
2 Lincoln Square POPS: 2 Lincoln Square
- Operator: Brown Harris Stevens
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
Damrosch Park: Amsterdam Avenue and West 62nd Street
- Operator: NYPL
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
61 West 62nd Street POPS: 61 West 62nd Street
- Operator: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
- Open year round: See business hours
- Fully accessible
Central Park West: Central Park near West 61st Street
- Operator: Central Park Conservancy
- Open seasonal: 7:30 a.m. to dusk
- Fully accessible
Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center: 232 West 60th Street
- Operator: NYC Parks
- Open year round: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Accessibility not specified
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Thank you. This is very helpful. A few quick comments:
Entrance to Tecumseh is on 77. It is part of PS87 so I’m not sure if it is open to the public during school hours (I’m sure there is a PS87 family here who can confirm). It is open after school and on weekends – definitely well past 4. Most of the playground bathrooms are open well past 4 – I think the rule is generally dusk.
As a parent of kids who use some of these playgrounds, I would like to request that random adults, no matter how well meaning they are, try to avoid using playground bathrooms. They are intended for kids and the adults accompanying them. Most parents are still diligent about not sending their kids to those bathrooms without an adult, but we still want to keep them as safe as possible.
I’m sure someone will find this request problematic but I don’t think this is a big ask unless you have a major emergency – there are plenty of alternatives as this list demonstrates.
Any parent who would send a small child to a public restroom unaccompanied by an adult is negligent.
A bunch of these (by school playgrounds) aren’t open to the public during school hours. And some are accessible after the 4:00 PM posted closing.
Tecumseh Playground – that is part of PS 87. I don’t think it is accessible to the public during school hours.
RE: Dinosaur Playground. The playground is about to undergo an $8 million renovation that will fence off the toilet structure.
This multimillion dollar project does NOT include the historic structure that houses the toilets, which also includes the park office and janitorial closet.
I’ve heard that Parks is trying to get some money allocated for a “refresh” of the toilets (which right now look like they belong in a 1930s prison). But the idea that $8 million doesn’t include any work on that structure, which is integral to the playground, is ridiculous.
Very helpful, thanks. But getting to a park or school when you’re shopping is really not an option. What happened to the street facilities proposals?
If I can’t get home, I use the bathroom in the lobby of the Arthouse Hotel on 77th and Broadway. Super accessible and central to the UWS.
No love for the David rubenstein atrium restrooms on broadway btwn 62 and 63?
What about the ones in the Central Park Tennis House? Also, are there rest rooms at the Rec House just north of the 97th St Transverse?
There are restrooms on north side o Sheep Meadow, next to Le Pain Quotidien, closed in the evening.
1. I didn’t appreciate how essential good public restrooms are until we had a kid. Now I see them as one of the most important things we can do to make New York a more family friendly city.
2. I will believe that the city is committed to new public restrooms when I see it actually happen. They have announced plans before that have come to nothing. https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/03/29/nyc-promised-public-bathrooms-still-waiting/
3. Highly recommend the Oscar nominated movie Perfect Days. It features Tokyo’s amazing and beautiful public restrooms. (It is also a just a really great and hopeful movie. I think it’s my favorite thing I’ve seen this year).
Agreed – when you have a 3 or 4 year old you gain a new appreciation. And you realize how many small business owners of every background will be wonderfully kind if there is an anxious little kid involved. I recall asking at moments of need and being directed with my little one to toilets at the back of hardware stores, pizzerias with three booths, small grocery stores, you name it. Also known to many grateful parents when the stores were still around: the loos at Barnes and Noble, and on the lower floor of Bed Bath and Beyond (which used to be a reliably clean, accessible, respite.)
I doubt the Gertrude Ederly Rec center will let you past the front desk without your rec center ID. Because if they did what would stop you from using the bathroom and then the pool or weight room?
Ederle update: fully accessible toilets are open to the public from the playground whenever it is open. (No entry to the rec center is needed.) Entry gates to the playground are on both 59th and 60th streets between Amsterdam and West End. There is a new wheelchair ramp (or three steps down) to get to the level of the restroom doors from the 60th Street side. From the 59th side it is flat.
Doesn’t the neighboring outdoor playground by Ederle have toilets?
Whatever St. Agnes Library claims–and while the bathrooom is large–the door is impossible to open, entering or leaving. Too heavy and on an automatic closing. I should know; I avoid this bathroom if at all possible.
After 10 years of Democratic Mayors, finding a place to relieve yourself has never been easer, just pee in the street no one will bother you.
Anibal Aviles Playground restrooms have being out of service for almost a year now. Super annoying as it was part of the building complex next door. Can the WSR find out wha this going on?
What about using some abandoned newspaper stands? Perfect for “on the go” shopping and touring and messengers and delivery people. I’ve also often thought about an edifice that is not completely closed……the bottom 1/4th open so you can see if someone is in there, but the essential 3/4ths closed?
This is really helpful. It would be even more helpful if we could find out what restrooms had changing tables! With two kids under age 1, I’m shocked by the lack of changing tables in private facilities pretty atrocious. So knowing what public facilities have changing tables would be really useful.
I highly recommend changing them standing up as soon as they are able to stand. We did that with our second kid after always using (often disgusting) changing tables with our first. It’s a bit tricky learning the new angles but once you do it is incredibly liberating!
So many are not accessible. Once again, those in wheelchairs are left out of a needed resource. 2024 and we might as well be living in the 1800s.
Thanks for nothing, Upper East Side 🙂
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