New York's New Public Restroom Initiative Ensures You Won't Be Stranded On Your Staten Island Travels

Staten Island is certainly New York City's most overlooked borough, without the glitz and culture of Manhattan's most incredible neighborhoods from Midtown to the Village, the nightlife of Brooklyn's trendiest areas, the delicious Asian bakeries of Queens, or the soul food of the Bronx to draw in tourists. If you're hoping to get off the beaten track and visit Staten Island's botanical garden, lighthouse museum, or one of the city's least crowded swim beaches while you're visiting New York, don't let the fear of not being able to find a public bathroom keep you from hopping off the ferry. A relatively recent initiative, amusingly titled "Ur in Luck," is making it easier to find a bathroom throughout the city. That's especially important in Staten Island, where large parts of the borough are residential, so it's a lot harder to sneak into a hotel lobby or buy a coffee to get the bathroom code while you're exploring.

At the time of writing, there are 59 public bathrooms around Staten Island and 7 more are on the way thanks to the expanding public bathrooms from the Ur In Luck initiative. Some are likely to be renovations of existing restrooms, but a lot of the new bathrooms coming to NYC are little metal pods that the city can build relatively affordably, but with sinks, toilets, and changing tables for infants, they should get the job done.

New bathrooms are coming to Staten Island, but if you've got to go before they arrive, never fear. While it might feel like there's nothing to do in pricey New York City for free, there are actually lots of public spaces where you can relax and spend time without spending money — and a lot of those spots around the city already have bathrooms. If you use Google Maps to plan your travels and find where you're going, make sure to add the New York City Official Public Restrooms Map layer so that you can easily spot the closest bathroom.

New York has iconic free-to-visit museums where you can spend the day and have ready access to facilities, though the Staten Island Museum technically has a suggested donation. While you might not imagine yourself hiking or exploring outdoor natural spaces in NYC outside of Central Park, Staten Island actually has acres of parks and gardens to explore. Fortunately, many public parks, like Great Kills Park and Old Town Playground, have completely free bathrooms that you can use while you're there. If it's a rainy day in New York City and you'd rather spend the afternoon inside than explore the outdoor spaces, having clean and accessible bathrooms is just one of the many ways that the New York Public Library always has you covered. If all else fails, you can always use the bathroom at the Staten Island Ferry terminals on your way back to Manhattan.