New York City parents rejoice: Most New York City public park bathrooms now have baby changing tables, the parks department announced Thursday.
Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said the department installed 600 new baby changing tables in public park bathrooms throughout the city this year, bringing the total number to over 1,200.
“All parents and caregivers know that when your child’s diaper needs changing, having a clean and safe space is the bottom line,” Donoghue said in a statement. “The cleanliness and accessibility of our restrooms are top priorities for NYC Parks, ensuring New Yorkers can enjoy their time outdoors with comfort and convenience.”
The announcement comes three years before the 2027 deadline set by a City Council bill passed last year that requires nearly every restroom inside New York City’s public parks to have “a safe, sanitary and convenient diaper changing station, deck, table or similar amenity.” The measure excluded restrooms that lacked sufficient space for a diaper changing station or that had been repeatedly vandalized.
It also comes as New York City, which already has some of the fewest public toilets per capita of any large city in the United States, seeks to build new public restrooms and improve its existing ones. And the parks department, which hosts a large number of the city’s public restroom facilities, announced a pilot program last year that would add new public toilets in five parks that didn’t already have them starting this summer, which it budgeted $5.3 million for.
Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr., a Bronx Democrat who sponsored the bill, joined Donoghue at a press conference in Hunts Point in the Bronx on Thursday morning. He said that the measure was personal for him as a father, and recounted how he couldn’t find an appropriate place to change his son’s diaper when he used to take him to the playground.
“I either did it on a park bench or, I did it sitting on the bench with him on my lap,” he said in an interview with Gothamist. “And so going through that experience, one day I just thought to myself, well, why doesn’t every park playground have a diaper changing station?”
According to the parks department, only 37% of the 1,300 public restrooms it manages had changing tables in 2020. That’s when it bought and installed an initial 600 baby changing tables. After this year’s round of installations following the passage of Local Law 56, 90% of restrooms now have changing tables, including men’s, women’s, and gender-neutral facilities.
In Crown Heights on Thursday evening, Maria Alvarado said the new tables were “definitely helpful,” and added that she was lucky to find a changing table in the restaurant where she was eating with her 2-year-old daughter. She said she’d just like for the public bathrooms and the new tables in them to be kept clean.
The new tables have a load capacity of 250 pounds and are “highly durable, easy to clean, moisture resistant and ADA compliant,” the parks department stated in a press release on Thursday. The release also stated that they’re made with a polyethylene interior and a stainless steel exterior, and are “naturally resistant to bacteria.”
“Even as an adult without any kids, like especially in Midtown, there’s no bathrooms for anyone and I feel like it’s a right that humans should have to be able to use the bathroom,” Alvarado said.
“Even more with kids, because you know, a lot of times they can’t control themselves,” she continued.
On the other hand, Maggie Lugano, who was with her baby in Washington Square Park on Thursday evening, said she didn’t think the new tables were very necessary.
“I would never use a park bathroom, especially with my child, if I didn’t have to,” Lugano said, adding that she prefers to change her baby in the stroller or even on a blanket in the grass.