A good friend of mine (I’ll call him Joe in the interests of confidentiality and saving him the embarrassment) and I were having the kind of conversation only close friends have and were sharing our most embarrassing moments. I’ll keep my embarrassing story for another post (perhaps), but today I’ll tell you all about “Joe’s.”
He was single, living in the city, and a gym rat. He was particular about the gym he went to, and it was a pleasant 15-minute run from his apartment. One early morning during his workout, he finally gathered up the courage to approach the girl he’d been admiring on the treadmill for the past few weeks and asked for her number. It turns out that she was also admiring him from a distance, so she happily obliged and wrote down her number on a sticky note.
On his jog home from the gym, with the number in hand, nature called or screamed, and he suddenly needed to go to the restroom. With no bathroom in sight, he hid beneath the steps of a brownstone and relieved himself. While he had taken his matter into his own hands, he looked up, only to discover that the girl who gave him his number was walking home from the gym and was directly across the street. She caught his eye midstream and was mortified. Joe terminated his gym membership and never found the courage to call the girl.
What’s the deal with major cities worldwide and their lack of public restrooms?
On more than one occasion, nature has called, and my only option was the closest Starbucks, MacDonalds, or ShakeShack (no pun intended). I’ve probably purchased $1,000 of unwanted fast food due to the lack of available public options. On more than one occasion, I’ve also pretended to be a patron about to have lunch in the restaurant with the sign firmly stating “restroom for patrons only.” It’s even more difficult if you’re out with your young daughter after a long day of sightseeing.
This has been a major failure in city planning. And it’s a global issue. I’ve been a walking tourist in New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Los Angeles, Rio, Barcelona, etc., and the only place I’ve felt addressed our need to go was Tokyo. They have free, clean, and an abundance of public restrooms.
New York City has only 1,103 public restrooms for more than 8 million residents and 63 million tourists annually. What a failure on the part of city planning.
I guess the only way this gets resolved is the same way most things get done when there’s a need. They are privatized and monetized. So here’s my idea. Take some of these small empty retail spaces that are abundant and turn them into private pay-to-play restrooms. Make them an experience even. I’d gladly pay $5 to have access to a clean and safe experience without the pressure of having to buy something to eat just for the privilege. And if you build an app that helps people find these restroom experiences, there’d probably be a line around the corner of other paying customers who value privacy and cleanliness.
Side Bar:
I’m a big fan of Audible, and I’m a big fan of John Legend. The two came together to create a beautiful experience called “Living Legend” – a recording of his solo performance at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club where he tells his life story and plays the soundtrack and songs to compliment it. You’ll thank me for the recommendation.
Let’s do this.
-Shaun