CB 5 won’t flush public toilet proposal
BY CHRISS WILLIAMS
Community Board 5’s
Budget, Education and
City Services Committee
won’t flush the city’s proposed
program to incentivize retail and
food-service establishments to
open restrooms to the public.
The committee heard on Feb.
25 the results of a mandated
review conducted by the New
York City Department of Consumer
Affairs on the program’s
feasibility.
Local Law 74 of 2018 tasked
the DCA to conduct a review on
the feasibility of implementing a
penalty mitigation program for
retail and food-service establishments.
The program waives fines
for first-time violations of specific
civil penalties, such as failure to
post a required sign, in exchange
for making its restrooms available
to the public during business
hours.
Food-service businesses would
be eligible to receive the same incentive
by donating excess food
to local non-profit organizations.
“There is a real need for
Members of Community Board 5’s Budget, Education and City Services Committee
weigh-in on the NYDCA’s review of the feasibility of incentivizing local businesses to
open their restrooms to the public.
them,” said committee member
Julie Chou, after presenting a
brief overview of a city public
toilet study she conducted last
year. Chou found only 30 public
restrooms available in the CB5
district, with only two open after
7 p.m.
Chou cited London’s ‘Community
Toilets Scheme’ as a potential
model for NYC, which pays businesses,
including pubs, restaurants
and retail shops to make restrooms
accessible to the public.
Alberto Roldan, senior outreach
coordinator for the NYC
Department of Consumer Affairs,
told the committee that the
DCA is in favor of retail business
participation in the program.
However, the agency is hesitant
to officially approve food-service
establishment participation, due
to the agency’s lack of expertise
PHOTO BY CHRISS WILLIAMS
in studying or regulating excess
food or food waste nor having
the experience in vetting types of
nonprofit agencies that would be
appropriate for the program.
As written, the program is
voluntary and retail businesses
seeking the program’s two-year
contract must certify that it has
at least one bathroom that can be
made safe, accessible and reasonably
clean to the public during
business hours with the exception
of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Committee Chair Renee Kinsella
asked Roldan if there was an
expectation for the city to financially
support establishments, “in
terms of having them underwrite
insurance or having to hire more
staff for cleaning?”
“I am not sure, but in previous,
similar initiatives, we have
partnered with agencies that
have provided some funding for
businesses,” Roldan responded.
Committee members expressed
their support for good public
restrooms with appropriate city
support to ensure a positive experience
for New Yorkers on the
go. The committee voted in favor
of writing a letter conveying its
recommendations and concerns
about the DCA’s review of penalty
mitigation. This includes, how the
DCA will construct and implement
guidelines for foodservice
establishments and create clear
criteria as to what constitutes
‘safe and clean’ restrooms.
The letter will be presented
and reviewed at the CB5 full
board meeting on March 12.
Remembering victims of ‘93 WTC attack
BY ALEX MITCHELL
It was a somber afternoon outside
of the Freedom Tower as
the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing victims were remembered
on the 27th anniversary of
the terror attack which killed six
and injured over 1,000.
Police pipe bands joined
family and friends of John Di-
Giovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick,
Stephen Knapp, William Macko,
Wilfredo Mercado and Monica
Rodriguez Smith in marching
to the 1993 memorial section of
the north reflecting pool at the
World Trade Center, commemorating
the exact minute when that
parking garage truck bomb took
their lives at 12:18 p.m. those
years ago.
The first terror attack on the
World Trade Center is anything
but a forgotten piece of history as
surrounding crowds of passersby
that were not involved in the ceremony
gathered in solidarity with
the victims’ loved ones as they,
Family and friends of the 1993 WTC bombing victims lay flowers during a memorial.
with FDNY, PAPD, and NYPD
laid flowers on the memorial,
some saluting those lost.
“It’s terribly important that we
not forget the innocent people
who were killed by terrorists
here at this site in 1993,” said
Alice Greenwald, President and
CEO of the 9/11 Memorial &
Museum, who also spoke during
the ceremony.
“We owe those people the obligation
of remembering them,” she
added, also noting that one of the
victims, Monica Rodriguez Smith
was killed while pregnant.
The 1993 bombing inevitably
thought emergency personnel
PHOTO BY ALEX MITCHELL
tactics and polices which were
used on 9/11, according to
Greenwald.
“There were several impacts
as a result of the 93 bombing
that actually saved lives eight
years later,” she said, explaining
that structural improvements
were made to the Twin Towers
along with evacuation protocol
improvements such as fluorescent
stairwell lighting and the provision
of evacuation chairs for those
with disabilities in addition to
other methods put into place.
Greenwald also explained that
the ’93 attack heightened emergency
preparedness of those working
at the World Trade Center.
“There was a sense of having
practiced in an emergency and
people went into autopilot,” the
CEO said, mentioning that many
who endured the 1993 attack
didn’t wait for a formal evacuation
order on 9/11.
“That instinct to leave saved
lives,” Greenwald said.The 1993
bombing’s mission was also to destroy
both towers, per the plot of
the terrorist mastermind Ramzi
Yousef, who was captured while
in the midst of a separate plot
to bomb at least 11 US international
flights and had worked on
a planned assassination of Pope
John Paul II, according to FBI
archives and other databases.
4 February 27,2020 Schneps Media