PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Andrew Maroko, Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai on Public Toilets and Menstrual-Friendly Facilities
2:15:59
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142 sec
Andrew Maroko, an associate professor at the Institute for Health Equity Research at Mount Sinai, presents findings from a global study on menstrual-friendly public toilets. He emphasizes the importance of properly designed public toilets for enabling full participation in public life and supports the proposed bills 267 and 694 for addressing unmet needs.
- The study examined different neighborhood types in six cities, focusing on characteristics that make facilities menstrual-friendly.
- New York City scored lower than other high-income cities, meeting only 70% of basic menstrual-friendly criteria.
- Maroko stresses the importance of considering gender equity when designing, upgrading, and constructing public restrooms.
Andrew Maroko
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Hi.
2:16:00
I'm Andrew Marocco.
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I'm an associate professor at the Institute for Health Equity Research at the ICANN School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
2:16:06
Thanks so much for for letting me talk a little bit.
2:16:08
I'm gonna say a little more about what Marnie was talking about with multiple friendly public toilets.
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First, there's broad agreement.
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I think everyone here agrees that properly designed and provision public toilets enable populations, including those who demonstrate the ability to move through public spaces and fully participate in public life.
2:16:25
Bill's 267 at 694 go a long way and beginning to address these unmet needs.
2:16:30
And as Doctor.
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Sommer said, Metro friendly public toilets are accessible, safe, and clean, and fully serve the needs for those who met straight.
2:16:38
So in our global study, we looked at different neighborhood types in the six cities that Doctor.
2:16:43
Sommer mentioned, focusing on characteristics that would make these facilities muscle friendly.
2:16:47
They include accessibility, privacy and safety, physical structure, cleanliness, availability of general resources, and availability of natural health specific resources.
2:16:57
And I wanna emphasize that these criteria are not just important for those who menstruate, but for everybody on the go in the city, working, raising kids, recreating, protesting, or pestering their city council representatives.
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Well maintained public toilets are crucial staging elements in civic life.
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So after auditing around 200 public toilet facilities, we found that overall residential areas tended to be more severely under resourced in terms of number of facilities than other neighborhood types.
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Supporting 697, which among other thing includes goals of ensuring a fair distribution of facilities.
2:17:28
Jimmy, we think that's laudable, although it's always important to consider how you measure the geographic distribution guarantee that all the populations and all neighborhoods properly serve.
2:17:37
In our study, there were no neighborhood types, business transit, tourist, or residential that showed acceptable levels of master filming this.
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Alarmingly, we also found that New York City scored lower than other high income cities like Barcelona and Osaka, in our study, meeting only around 70% of the basic menstrual friendly criteria, barely passing grade.
2:17:56
And we didn't score that much higher than cities in low and middle income countries in Brazil, Philippines, and Uganda, which are far fewer resources to work with.
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Gender equity is a fundamental gauge when designing, upgrading, citing, and constructing public restrooms.
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Accommodating the needs of such a large portion of our population shouldn't be ignored or an afterthought, but should be incorporated from the very beginning of the process.
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We have the opportunity to not just lead the country, but also the world in providing
Lincoln Restler
2:18:22
a basic service in a truly equitable manner.
