PORTLAND, Maine — We've all been there: you're exploring a new city or town and suddenly you have to use the restroom with none in sight.
It's a common problem many face, which is why cities and towns in Maine are looking for better ways to increase public access to restrooms.
"It's one of the things we hear most from our downtown businesses, they often have customers that are asking for public restrooms," Portland Downtown Executive Director Cary Tyson said, who helped to host a public webinar on the topic.
Tyson said all it took was a simple walk for his team to see that having a public restroom available within two or three minutes on foot anywhere in the city would be ideal. Now, it's a long-term goal for the non-profit group's upcoming master plan.
"There are a few if you're along Commercial Street, but if you're beyond that they're far and few between," Tyson added. "When it's important to our local business community, our local citizens, our visitors...then it's important to us."
According to author and guest of Portland Downtown's webinar Leslie Lowe, not only can more restrooms be good for locals but can also be a boost for businesses that want potential customers to spend more time in the city.
"Certainly some examples that were used in Portland were helpful to us to try and determine what would work best here in Bangor," Bangor Parks and Recreations Director Tracy Willette said, who is now helping to facilitate the installation of a handful of semi-permanent toilets, with leftover pandemic relief funding. "We want to have that public engagement, that public discussion, to indeed determine what's going to be the best locations around the city," he said.
To make installing public toilets even easier, Senator James Libby is sponsoring a state-wide bill that would ease permit requirements when it comes to placing temporary portable toilets if passed.
However, Tyson said semi-permanent restrooms can become unapproachable with wear and tear. Tyson said the city is looking into more permanent solutions that tap into underground plumbing, but funding could be a barrier.
As the discussion continues how to better Maine's public restroom infrastructure, Tyson said with the many factors working against cities and towns, making sure restrooms are maintained, approachable, and accessible is going to be a community-wide effort to pull off.