SI Ferry Bathroom Attendants Get Flushed with Budget Cuts

John Del Signore/Gothamist

Commuters on the Staten Island Ferry fear that without bathroom attendants the facilities will go from sparkling to unsightly, especially during weekend "drunk boat" hours. At a budget hearing yesterday the Department of Transportation announced it would eliminate the jobs of eight women's room matrons and a dozen deckhands that clean the men's rooms, reports the Advance. Though the attendants cost the city $1.4 million per year, ferry passengers were distressed by the decision. "There's going to be drunk people in here and a mess," said Jessica Sosa of Dongan Hills.

Starting in June, maintenance workers will take over for the cleaners, tidying up only in the five-minute intervals when the ferry is docked at either terminal. "What happens if someone gets ill or has an accident? We have to wait until the boat docks to have it cleaned up? That's not right," said one commuter, adding that, "This is just another example of Staten Island commuters getting the short end of the stick." The issue is of particular concern since last year the Staten Island ferry saw a great increase in ridership.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on March 23, 2010 1:44 PM

Comments [rss]

dadoc

Iffin you don't want a ferry fare, make the BR's a buck a pop, no exceptions. If that pays for the staff, fine. If not, you're on your own.

sundar2012

If these means keeping less si trash from washing up on our shores (only to be found at pacha after hours with pit stained ed hardy threads) then I am all for it.

Tower18

This is just another example of Staten Island commuters getting the short end of the stick.

Yes, unlike those in the other 4 boroughs whose subway trains have bathrooms WITH bathroom attendants!

xgeyiph772

You mean the subway that DOES NOT GO to Staten Island?

Tower18

Would you prefer that it did? Because if it did, you wouldn't have anywhere to piss, attendant or no.

xgeyiph772

And why is that? Because 30 years ago the MTA, in it's infinite wisdom, decided it was easier to close the many bathrooms in the subway instead of keeping them safe and clean. They gave up on providing a needed service to their riders to save a few bucks. And now the SI Ferry is next. If you want to live in a city that does not even provide a clean, safe bathroom for 5,000 riders per boat, than you aren't asking much. NYC, the "Capital of the World" , cannot provide you with a place to take a leak. Nice.

Tower18

Except bathrooms in the stations = bathrooms in the terminals. There were never bathrooms on the trains. If they remove bathrooms from the ferry ENTIRELY (which they're not doing), you'd be in the same position as subway riders back in the glory days you speak of.

xgeyiph772

Tower 18: My point is, there should be clean, safe bathrooms in the subway, the ferry terminals and on the boats. Go visit Paris, London, even Los Angeles and ride the Metro in these cities. A clean, safe bathroom is not a luxury. Yet NYC treats it's citizens like crap (no pun inteneded) when it comes to clean toilets.

Why do we even NEED to do this back-and-forth blogument about providing clean bathrooms for ferry riders? Is it asking so freaking much to have a clean, safe bathroom on the ferry OR the subway? Why is a simple nicety like a clean ferry/subway bathroom considered a luxury item that can be cut? Maybe you don't mind pissy smelling subway stations (which smell a LOT worse that they did 30 years ago), but I think a clean toilet is a necessity on both the subway AND the ferry. Sorry you don't see it that way.

whitecastlerock

It would be nice if the bums on the E train would wipe the seat when they were finished...

buttface

1.4mm / 20 employees = 70k for janitors

Awesomer

That's probably about right, including benefits. Probably corresponds to a salary of $40,000.

longacre

Unless they start charging a fare, the bathrooms should be closed completely. It's a 15 minute ride and there are bathrooms in the terminals.

xgeyiph772

Actually, it's a 30 min ride, and since it usually takes 20 or 30 mins to get to South Ferry from midtown, and you often have to run to catch the boat, it's hard sometimes to use the terminal bathrooms.

What's more at issue is that a little bit of civility like having a bathroom attendant (in the Ladies Room; there is none in the Mens Room) is now impossible in the USA. Really, this city is becoming more like a third world country, and we all get to fight online about something as trivial as keeping an attendant on the boat to clean the bathroom and provide a measure of safety in the Ladies Room. Have we become such a weak-ass city that we can't afford to pay minimum wage to someone to clean ferryboat bathrooms? It's just sad.

JenChungsBaby

If it was just minimum wage then we probably could afford bathroom attendants in every city building. But when they make $30/hr + benefits then no.

xgeyiph772

Fine. But for those of you who grew up in NYC in the '70s and '80s, you'll remember what this town was like when the MTA, SI Ferry, etc cut out maintenance programs and bathroom attendants. The city became a filthy rathole, and it took the better part of the late '80s and early '90s to get out of that hole.

You want to live in a filthy city where we can't even afford to pay people to clean a lousy bathroom, then have at it.

kane

It's not that the bathrooms won't be cleaned up; it's that they won't be cleaned up in real time. You'll have to wait for the boat to dock at the terminal for someone to run in there and clean the bathroom up. If that means that "this city is becoming like a third world country," well, I just don't know what to say to such a ridiculous statement.

jaycjay

"This is just another example of Staten Island commuters getting the short end of the stick."

Right. Commuters in the other boroughs ride the subway, and face it: no one has seen an untidy bathroom on a NYC subway train.

luke*

Hahahaha. Save money by cutting out some of the lowest paid positions. Enjoy drowning in your own fecal matter. But at least your taxes will go down, right? No, actually they won't anyway.