The Strange Case of the Inaccessible Restroom

By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

A little shop on Seventh Avenue is really in the backyard of this older residential tenement on another street. In order to try to provide a restroom for the shop, the proprietor and the landlord have suggested that coming around the block to enter the basement from this stoop, at center, is a “reasonable accommodation.” Credit: Brian J. Pape, AIA.

This is a story of a friendly little sandwich shop in our neighborhood. Like many small shops in the area, it is located in an old building that has seen many modifications over the years. Now this is the kind of shop that neighbors like to have around and like to patronize. It is a safe place to go, convenient to get a satisfying meal or a quick snack. Until recently, the little shop didn’t have enough room for seats to require a customer restroom so it was mainly a take-out restaurant.

This little shop faces Seventh Avenue but it is really in the backyard of an older residential tenement on another street. This unusual structure is due to the avenue cutting through the established Village streets years ago for the subway. However, the shop is walled off from the rest of the residential building, probably due to fire safety protection.

Recently, the friendly sandwich shop has expanded its seating to include outdoor dining and is applying for a liquor license. The new seating is a pleasant environment for sidewalk dining as long as it does not crowd the necessary path for passing pedestrians. Yet, this is where it gets complicated.

Food service establishments with more than a certain number of seats are required to have a restroom accessible for customers. The NY State Liquor Authority also has rules that require restrooms. Most importantly, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) made accessibility in public places the law of the land; if you serve the public, that business must accommodate people with disabilities. A typical but not exclusive example would be that a customer in a wheelchair needs to be able to enter an establishment and use the restroom alone, with no steps in the way.

You may be puzzled by discovering many restaurants in the city have restrooms (or even entrances) that are only accessible for the nimble and able-bodied. This is due to a loophole in the laws that say if the business was established before the law, they can continue to use their facilities as is. The only requirement is that the restaurants try to accommodate their customers with other “reasonable” means.

Our little sandwich shop must now meet these ADA requirements with the expanded seating and service of alcohol. In a public hearing before the community board, the proprietor declared “there is no room for a restroom in the little shop” but “we’ll provide a reasonable accommodation elsewhere in the building.” By that, they mean they’ll provide an employee escort for any customer that requests to use the restroom, escort them out of the building, around the block and over to another building entry on another street. From there, they will be escorted up the steep stoop steps—open the keyed door, walk down a long residential hall to the basement door, down another steep flight of steps—into a utility hall to an old existing restroom, also available to residents and staff. The escort (of any gender) will wait for you to finish, and will then lead you back up the stairs, out the building, down the stoop, and around the block back to the restaurant.

How’s that for “reasonable accommodation?” As one female board member remarked, “if I was going to be escorted by a male outside and into a dark basement hall, I wouldn’t go.” A creative solution is needed and some were offered at the hearing. Hopefully, a “reasonable accommodation” will be found for this strange little store.