The 2026 World Cup is seeing many of its matches in stadiums across North America. New York City is one of the many places that has been ramping up preparations to handle the upcoming local and international crowds. However, public bathrooms have risen to be one of the most concerning issues leading up to the event.
New York City is infamous for its lack of quality public bathrooms for the average citizen and visitor of the city. It’s a longstanding issue that, now compounding with the international pressure that comes with the World Cup, may finally be addressed, albeit temporarily. The city council is now playing catch-up.
The council’s majority leader, Shaun Abreu, recently introduced a bill that would expand bathroom access by installing temporary restrooms in high-traffic areas by June 1st. Already, there are roughly 1,000 public restrooms for every 8,500 residents, not enough to handle an influx of hundreds of thousands of people in the summer.
Hopefully, if all goes well, the success of these temporary bathrooms will help get the public to feel more confident in the council’s plans for future permanent bathrooms. It’s something that current mayor Zohran Mamdani centered on in his campaign and during his first 100 days in office. Already, around 4 million dollars have been allocated towards the installation of more public restrooms.
If all goes well, New Yorkers can hope to see the council’s goal of building 2,100 new public bathrooms by 2035.
