Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that the city will install 17 modular public restrooms in high-traffic areas, a one-year pilot program run with Throne Labs. Installation begins this week in all five boroughs.
The program costs $4 million, according to La Voce di New York, which covered the announcement at the company's Long Island City warehouse. Two units were on display.
Planned sites include the area near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Columbus Park in Brooklyn and Cooper Square in the East Village, ABC7 New York reported.
Access works four ways: a text message, a QR code, the Throne Bathroom Network app, or a tap card handed out through local community partners. The cards exist so that people without smartphones, including homeless New Yorkers, can still get in.
That design drew the sharpest question of the event. NBC's Andrew Siff asked whether phone-based and card-based entry creates a barrier for exactly the population the restrooms are meant to serve.
Each unit locks on a timer. A Throne Labs representative said the feature has already proved useful, flagging medical emergencies inside far sooner than a permanently locked door would.
Mamdani kept the tone light. "This is not a place to scroll on your phone," he said, noting that the average visit to a public restroom runs under four minutes.
The shortage of public toilets falls hardest on delivery workers, cab and bus drivers, construction crews, parents with small children and anyone whose job keeps them on the street all day.
The pilot runs for a year, after which the administration will decide whether to expand the network.