A self-cleaning public restroom is coming to a Wicker Park intersection this year after advocacy by Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) to expand bathroom access in the city.
The city’s first standalone, automated restroom will be installed at the Polish Triangle in the middle of the Milwaukee, Ashland and Division intersection, above the Division Blue Line staton. It will be supplied by JCDecaux, which provides street furniture like bus shelters as well as other services to the city.
La Spata’s office did not share additional details on which toilet model will be installed or how it will function, but some models in use around the world have two toilet bowls, one that is pre-cleaned and ready for use and a second that spins behind a wall to be cleaned for the next use. Meanwhile, a low spray of water cleans the floor and quickly dries for the next user.
The restroom is free under the city’s existing contract with the company, La Spata previously told Block Club, but its installation and associated costs will be paid for through the 1st Ward’s annual menu funds.
La Spata allocated $315,659 for the costs from the 2025 menu program, while “some funds” will also be spent on the project from the 2026 program, Nicholas Zettel, 1st Ward chief of staff, said in an email Tuesday.
Zettel did not provide an installation timeline or specific location within the Polish Triangle for the toilet, but La Spata’s weekly newsletter on Tuesday said it would be operational “by the end of the year.” The Wicker Park and Logan Square alderperson is out of the office on paternity leave.
“Public bathrooms are one of the most popular policy proposals our office has ever seen, from everyday residents and homelessness advocates to members of our chambers of commerce and business community, and everyone in between,” according to the newsletter.
The latest push for public toilets in Chicago goes back to 2021, when La Spata and Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd) introduced a resolution calling for a pilot program to test out how public bathrooms could be built and maintained across the city.
Backers at the time argued the services would be especially helpful for parents of young children, unhoused people, older neighbors and people with disabilities.
A 2021 Tribune story found fewer than 500 structures in the city “contain free public restrooms with few or no barriers to entry, such as security checkpoints or client-only access.”
“It is clear that we have a need for Chicago to be a more caring place, and one of the ways we can do that is by making sure people are able to use the bathroom whenever they need to,” Zettel said Tuesday. “This is a well-trafficked area for potential users who might need a bathroom break on the way to any number of shops in Wicker Park, a CTA transfer, a walk home, an emergency, or any other number of possible scenarios.”
But some Wicker Park neighbors are already raising concerns about the toilet plan, including over potential sanitary and safety issues.
The restroom installation is on the agenda of this month’s meeting of the Wicker Park Committee, which is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Nick’s Beer Garden, 1516 N. Milwaukee Ave. The neighborhood group meets monthly and weighs in on various neighborhood issues.
Group President Grant Drutchas said he’s in favor of expanding public restroom access in the city but has a lot of “open questions” about the Polish Triangle plan, like how maintenance will work.
Drutchas is also not sure the Polish Triangle is the best location for the new toilet; the immediate area has struggled with vacancies and attracting development in recent years, he said.
“I’m not sure it’s quite the right location for it, as opposed to somewhere along Division [Street] or something like that, and the impact it’s going to have on some of the development of the triangle,” Drutchas said. “Whether it’s going to prevent some of the hopes of making that into something that is a just little more attractive to commuters and the public in general.”
The Wicker Park restroom will have a time limit on how long it can be used. La Spata previously said there will also be a restriction on hours of operation so it’s not in use overnight, although those details have not yet been announced.
