Like his three predecessors, Mayor Bloomberg came into office promising to add a vital amenity – street toilets – to the city’s landscape.
And, like the three mayors before him, it looks as if Bloomberg’s plan could be in danger of going down the drain.
The project is stalled in the City Council as Speaker Gifford Miller and the mayor grapple with a package proposal that includes newsstands and other “street furniture” that would produce up to $400 million for the city over the next 20 years.
Bloomberg wants the city’s 300 newsstand owners to pay for new stands, slap ads on them and hand over the revenue to the city. They oppose the plan.
Councilman Tony Avella said the main sticking points are the high cost of public toilets, which run about $30,000 each, and the fact that few companies will be interested in placing advertising on toilets to offset the cost.