If you’re on the go and have got to go, you’re out of luck most of the time in Boston, according to one city councilor who says the lack of public bathrooms throughout the major city is a “significant public health concern.”
Councilor Brian Worrell plans to introduce an order for a hearing Wednesday that will “explore the creation and maintenance of public bathroom facilities in the city of Boston.”
“In a city of more than 700,000 people, public bathrooms remain a scarce resource for many residents across the city of Boston, with entire areas of the city that do not have public facilities outside of privately-owned spaces that may allow for occasional access to the public, which is not the same as a public restroom that is fully accessible to our residents when they need it,” Worrell wrote.
“While libraries and community centers offer access to public bathrooms when they’re open, many of those facilities are open for eight hours a day and less than seven days a week, leaving sporadic public access.
“The lack of free public restrooms poses a significant public health concern with the potential to contribute to the spread of illness and disease,” Worrell added.
Worrell’s request for expanded public bathroom access comes ahead of a busy tourism season for the city, which is hosting the FIFA World Cup and a number of other large-scale events that will draw massive crowds to Boston.
His proposal appears to have early support from the City Council, given that Councilor Ben Weber, chair of the Ways and Means committee, has proposed a $100,000 budget amendment dedicated to funding public bathrooms in the city’s $4.9 billion budget for next fiscal year.
The Council is set to vote on its amendments to Mayor Michelle Wu’s budget and the spending plan as a whole at Wednesday’s meeting.
Whether the bathroom funding amendment will survive is unclear, given that it was included as an add-on to Weber’s amendment package, which also includes an up to $3 million cut from the Boston Police Department budget.
That means for the bathroom proposal to gain funding, the Council would have to pass the cuts to the police department.
The police cuts proposal drew a rebuke from Larry Calderone, head of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, on Monday, and Wu has vetoed Council public safety cuts to police and fire in recent years.
Worrell’s order is for a hearing, however, “to examine best practices and models for establishing and maintaining free and accessible public restrooms across the city of Boston.”
The councilor noted that other cities have explored similar “sustainable bathroom programs,” such as nearby Cambridge, which piloted a successful Portland Loo model in 2018 that has since become a permanent program.
Cambridge’s website says the city is now seeking to build a fourth 24/7 public bathroom at an estimated cost of $400,000.
