Chicago is getting a self-cleaning public restroom. Where is it, and when can it be used? 2026

<p>The West Town neighborhood now has the city's first public toilet. </p><p>It's just not open for use yet. Ald. Daniel La Spata's (1st) office did not have an estimated completion date for when the toilet will be installed since the project was <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago/2025/10/23/free-self-cleaning-public-toilet-la-spata" target="_blank" >announced last October</a>. But it has raised questions about how it will work, be managed, and who will pay for it. </p><p>Here's what you need to know.</p><h3>Where can I find the toilet?</h3><p>Chicago's sole public bathroom popped up this week near the CTA Blue Line station in the Polish Triangle at Division Street and Ashland and Milwaukee Avenues in West Town. Foundation work at the site is complete and contractors are working to attach utilities before restoration of the immediate area begins, according to La Spata’s office.</p><h3>How does it work?</h3><p>The public toilets like the one in West Town are free to use, but have a time limit and are automatically cleaned between uses. A combination of water and disinfectant is sprayed across the floor to clean anything left behind. Two toilet bowls are then rotated out to be disinfected by a power wash system.</p><p>Newer models can clean in 30 seconds, according to the French company JCDecaux, though older models took up to five minutes to disinfect between uses.</p><p> </p><h3>Who produces the toilet? Who is paying for it?</h3><p>JCDecaux, a French outdoor advertising company, is providing the restroom and maintenance at no cost to the city through a pilot program. However, the more than $400,000 in plumbing and installation costs will be covered with the 1st Ward’s menu funds — which City Council members receive annually for infrastructure projects in their ward — according to La Spata's office.</p><p>The company currently holds a three-year, $700,000 contract with the CTA through October 2027 to install and maintain screens displaying arrival times at city bus stations, which is an extension of previous contracts dating as far back as 2002, according to city records.</p><p>In addition to Chicago, JCDecaux has previously supplied 25 standalone public toilets <a class="Link" href="https://sfpublicworks.org/calendar/san-francisco-public-works-launches-new-jcdecaux-public-toilet-embarcadero-plaza" target="_blank" >to San Francisco</a> since 1994, and New York has seven already installed with plans to bring that number to 40 total. Last year, the company replaced 417 of the 435 self-cleaning restrooms it had installed in Paris with newer models. It also maintains 278 of the restrooms in Berlin that are among the 2,500 toilets it manages globally.</p><p>In San Francisco, the company signed a 20-year agreement to take on the full cost of design, manufacturing, installation and daily maintenance of toilets in exchange for installing <a class="Link" href="https://sfpublicworks.org/calendar/san-francisco-public-works-launches-new-jcdecaux-public-toilet-embarcadero-plaza" target="_blank" >114 advertising screens and kiosks</a> around the city.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>One of JCDecaux’s self-cleaning public restrooms in Paris, France.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>JCDecaux</p></div></div>

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</div><p></p><h3>Why is there a public toilet need?</h3><p>Chicago, like many other cities, has struggled with bathroom access. A 2021 <a class="Link" href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/10/21/chicagos-public-bathrooms-find-one-near-you-with-this-searchable-map/" target="_blank" >report</a> by the Chicago Tribune identified fewer than 500 structures in the city with free public restrooms, with most located in libraries, police stations, parks and other public buildings.</p><p>Officials globally have noted that the lack of public restrooms is particularly a problem for parents of young children, pregnant people, seniors, people with medical conditions and unhoused people. JCDecaux has supported the idea that access to hygiene is a human right.</p><p>New York is among several cities to have taken steps to <a class="Link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nyc-public-restrooms-toilets-parks-google-2cb515f49770f0bd65e68c2e5202324a" target="_blank" >spruce up its own public restrooms</a> in recent years. La Spata, who has been pushing for the toilets alongside Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) for years, previously said it was something Chicago was "catching up" on.</p><h3>What are concerns over public restrooms?</h3><p>Some residents have voiced concerns that the public restrooms could attract crime or they would not be adequately cleaned. Those were similar issues JCDecaux faced and has begun to tackle in its other locations, the advertising giant said. </p><p>According to the San Francisco Chronicle, after a single bathroom in San Francisco racked up <a class="Link" href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/toilet-bathroom-san-francisco-22380080.php" target="_blank" >more than 200 maintenance requests</a> in less than four years of operation, the company began staffing and adapting the restrooms. </p><p>That city's public works department said JCDecaux spends about $2.2 million per year maintaining a full fleet of public restrooms and staffing an attendant at each of them seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. "to ensure the toilets are kept safe, clean and operational."</p><p>It's unclear if Chicago's version will have an attendant.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>

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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago/2025/10/23/free-self-cleaning-public-toilet-la-spata" >Chicago’s first self-cleaning public toilet coming to the Northwest Side next year, alderperson says</a>
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Chicago is getting a self-cleaning public restroom. Where is it, and when can it be used? 2026

IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-10-03 10:53:00

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Chicago is getting a self-cleaning public restroom. Where is it, and when can it be used? 2026

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