Results tagged “bathroom”

Are city cabbies making "sun tea" in their vehicles? Of the 44,000 TLC drivers on the streets, most working 12 hour days, you can imagine how difficult it is for them to find a place they can relieve themselves. So many allegedly "resort to going in the street or peeing in bottles stowed under their seats."

A few years ago, Charmin decided to take some empty retail space in Times Square and turn it into a destination for people to enjoy some of its toilet paper during the holidays. Now, Charmin is looking for this holiday season's workers, asking, "Do you enjoy going to the bathroom enough to earn $10,000?"

Noooo! When the old sheepfold occupied by Tavern on the Green is taken over by a new operator in January, the notoriously mediocre tourist trap will lose the one thing that justified its existence: immaculately maintained public restrooms. The alternative, for the uninitiated, is the gross public restroom in Sheep Meadow, but since the '70s Tavern's facilities have served as a idyllic alternative. A spokeswoman for Tavern tells the Times, "We’ve always had the position we’re on public land, so certainly the bathrooms are open to the public." The new leaseholder, Dean J. Poll, who runs the Central Park Boathouse, isn't such a populist, but he actually spins the upcoming privatization as a thoughtful gesture for the bathroom-starved rabble: "Going past the bride or groom or people dressed to go to dinner, maybe that’s not what someone wants to do, and feels uncomfortable about it." Also, he adds, "the people in the restaurant feel uncomfortable." Good Heavens, Thurston, hoi polloi are in the powder room wearing short pantaloons! As a sop to the masses, Poll promises to construct a food concession stand outside the building with public restrooms, but nothing will ever, ever replace the satisfaction of using Tavern for its toilets.

For anyone accustomed to bringing some reading material along for a leisurely bathroom visit, here's one to grow on: According to the Post, a man was beaten up Friday night by three other young men furious about his lengthy occupation of the restroom at a Greenwich Village bagel shop. When 23-year-old Zaaven Castelan finally abdicated the throne at Giant Bagels on University Place at 10 p.m. Friday, he found three "pissed-off" perps waiting. Police identified them as Osman Jalloh, 19, Mohamed Sow, 21, and Amadou Diallo, 21. Cops say the three pummeled Castelan when he exited the bathroom, and ran; they were apprehended soon after the incident. Reached by phone, an employee at Giant Bagels insisted he knew nothing about the incident, but added that only works during the day.

You'll recall that the city recently agreed to pay $22,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU on behalf of a man who says cops ejected him from Yankee Stadium last summer when he tried to use the bathroom during "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch. And the Yankees, as part of the settlement, affirmed that there was no policy restricting fans’ movements. So the Times checked in on Friday night's Yankee game and found that although most fans stayed in their seats during the song, one Rich Popaduke defiantly proceeded to the men's room, declaring, "Freedom is what makes us American!" Why do sports fans with full bladders hate America? A security guard, Nicole Farrell from East New York, opined, "Everybody has free choice. You cannot interfere with that." But at least one fan is here to remind us the freedom to pee freely isn't free; Sue Coster, whose brother is a Gulf war veteran, vowed retribution against anyone exiting during God Bless America: "If they tried to do that in my aisle, I would have stuck out my leg."

Anthony Marshall, the 85-year-old son of the late philanthropist Brooke Astor, fell in a bathroom, hitting his head, in the courthouse where he is on trial for stealing from his mother's fortune. The Daily News reports, "The accident happened around 11:30 a.m. Some 45 minutes later, paramedics were still trying to treat Marshall. His wife, Charlene, was also inside the men's room comforting him." His lawyer said, "He was dizzy and fell. He fell down in the stall and hit his head." The Post, which notes that Marshall requested to see a doctor being he wasn't feeling well yesterday, has a sad picture of Marshall wearing an oxygen mask and sitting on a gurney.

Two uniformed cops who ejected a Red Sox fan from Yankee Stadium last summer when he tried to use the bathroom during "God Bless America" have cost NYC taxpayers some $20,000 in settlement money. But the good news is that Yankee Stadium will now allow attendees relieve themselves during the Seventh Inning stretch! You'll recall that last August, one Brad Campeau-Laurion refused to obey an NYPD officer who ordered him back to his seat when he tried to use the bathroom as "God Bless America" played. According to Campeau-Laurion, two officers then forcefully threw him out, with one of the officers telling him to "leave the country if he didn’t like it." In the wake of 9/11, Yankee stadium began requiring spectators to remain in their seats during patriotic songs, in some cases extending chains to block the ends of the aisles. But after a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU over "enforced patriotism," a settlement was reached yesterday whereby Campeau-Laurion gets $10,001 from the city, the NYCLU gets $12,000 for legal fees, and baseball fans are granted the liberty to micturate at will.

At the end of March, a prominent Upper East Side psychologist was arrested after a patient discovered a surveillance camera inside a lightbulb in the bathroom. But earlier this month prosecutors dropped the felony charge of unlawful surveillance against Dr. Robert Reiner, an NYU psychologist who has appeared as a medical expert on MTV and talk shows. It turns out that the camera, which was not wired to a monitor, was unwittingly put in the outlet by a contractor Reiner hired to do some work at the office; Reiner insists he used it at his Westchester home to monitor his kids on the trampoline, and that he brought the inoperative camera into work because he needed the code number on the camera to order a new one.

If you're feeling down about the economy, maybe you'll find some comfort in the latest story about cutbacks being made...at the members-only SoHo House. No, no one's cracking open a fresh can of PBR there just yet, these are more like decadent rich people cutbacks. The House has put up a sign reading: "Anyone found in pairs in the toilet will be asked to leave the club immediately and their membership will be suspended." The sign has reportedly caused quite a stir amongst the well-heeled on a Facebook page that's since been taken down, and Guest of a Guest theorizes the bathrooms were not just being crowded with coke buddies, but fornicators, too, "Drug use has always been a common concern for bathroom attendants at our city’s hot spots...but apparently, sex is the new cocaine. It makes sense too…sex is a lot cheaper, and even the young, rich, and famous need to save up their pennies." Members, don't fear, there's a loophole with this sign which makes threesomes totally acceptable.

Sure, we're all familiar with subway tiles, but would you ever go so far as to recreate the Dekalb subway stop in your bathroom? One Glasgow resident did just that, making good on a 21-year-old promise.

21 years ago I arrived in New York City from Scotland to visit...and was immediatedly fascinated by The Subway. I was an undergrad painting student at the time, and returned to Scotland to begin making full-size replicas of mosaic-ed station names, complete with grafitti and running-water staining. At the time, i remember saying that if I ever bought a flat, I would tile my bathroom with a New York subway station name. I decided on my local station on that first NY trip - DeKalb Avenue.

Meet 87-year-old Anna Reyneso, a Washington Heights resident who, when she needs to use the bathroom at night, must awaken her 50-year-old daughter to guide her by flashlight to a vacant apartment down the hall. That’s because her landlord, Dorothea Levine, sent contractors in January to rip out Reyneso’s bathroom toilet, tub, floors and walls--a harassment tactic the Daily News says is part of an ongoing battle over the 54-unit, rent-stabilized building's future. Three other tenants had their bathrooms removed, and the building has so many violations the city has taken the rare step of suing Levine to take over the building. Of course, two can play at that game: landlords are suing the city right back in order to stop the recently-passed Tenant Protection Act.

Grand Central Terminal's Metro-North waiting area now feature restrooms for women only. Like many other busy places where women frequently line up to use bathrooms while men never seem to have that problem (theaters, stadiums), female commuters and tourists alike find themselves waiting at various restrooms in the station. A Metro-North spokeswoman told the NY Times the GCT restrooms (which have "Botticino marble walls, seamless terrazzo flooring, Stony Creek granite partitions and mirrors with scalloped edges") are up for America's best restroom at bestrestroom.com.

A patron of the Coney Island boardwalk bar Ruby’s got sent on a shocking detour during a trip to the men’s room over Memorial Day Weekend. It so happened that Observer reporter Chris Shott was having a beer at the bar around 5:30 Saturday when the owner abruptly pulled the plug on the jukebox and threw everyone out.

As the boozy crowd abandoned their beverages and shuffled out, a slew of firefighters, police and paramedics huddled in the back amid the eerie glow of a bright Coors Light sign near the men’s restroom… An officer in shorts and a blue polo shirt marked “Community Relations,” bluntly summed up the situation: “One guy was taking a leak, the floor partially collapsed, and he fell 10 feet.”

Some subway riders and transit advocates are upset about NYC Transit closing subway bathrooms between midnight and 5 a.m. for cleaning. As AMNY puts it, "Subway toilets are the pit stop of last resort," but many New Yorkers, whether they are "leaving bars, clubs, or their work shift," rely on them. One ironworker said, "Where do I go now? Wet my pants?"

Anyone who’s ever declared, “You couldn’t pay me to eat at Caliente Cab Company” should consider the case of Khadijah Farmer, whose humiliating experience at the West Village tourist trap netted her $35,000 today. While patronizing the restaurant after the Gay Pride parade last year, Farmer was ousted from the ladies room by the bouncer, who interrupted her while she was on the toilet because he thought she was a he.

The hunt for a bathroom in Central Park gets even more desperate for the next week, as a troupe of Irish actors have commandeered the public bathrooms in Central Park's Bethesda Terrace to present their play Ladies & Gents. The noir thriller is acted out near the sinks and urinals, while audience members pay $25 a head (sorry) to stand along a row of stalls for the 40 minute play.