Bathrooms Shut Down At New Rochelle Train Station
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (WCBS 880 / CBS 2) -- Heading to the train in New Rochelle? GO BEFORE YOU GO!
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WCBS 880's Sean Adams flushes out reaction
You know the economy has gone down the drain if there is no money to keep a public restroom open. At the New Rochelle train station, hand-written notes on the bathroom doors alert commuters to the grim news.
CBS 2's Jay Dow was told the bathrooms inside the station are still cleaned on a daily basis, but commuters, taxi drivers, the homeless, you name it, have been holding it since Jan. 3.
"I think it's terrible," one man told WCBS 880 reporter Sean Adams. "Five o'clock in the morning, I have to go to the bathroom. Open the bathroom please!"
A woman said, "People do have emergencies, even sick in the stomach and you need the use the restroom."
Another man said, "That is totally ridiculous." He went on to point out that pregnant women don't have the luxury of holding it in the way the rest of us do.
New Rochelle's City Manager Charles Strome said vandalism has become a problem and the city simply can't afford to monitor the bathrooms on a regular basis.
"Our police department has ceded a 10-percent reduction in staff so we don't have regular patrols there like we used to. So all in all it was costing us a significant amount of money to keep the bathrooms open at the train station," Strome said.
"It's crazy. A lot of people have to go to the bathroom," said taxi driver Anna Bruczese. "Including me, several times a day."
"There are certain things you just can't cut back on. When nature calls I don't know what you're gonna do," said Milton Garrick of New Rochelle.
City Manager Strome's suggestion: skip the station, and use the bathrooms on the train.
