Downtown Minneapolis has just six public restrooms available around the clock, and a city plan to change that with $700,000 in new funding has stalled before a single unit could be installed. City officials say the holdup comes down to a basic market problem: not enough vendors can build a restroom tough enough for Minnesota winters, safe enough for city standards, and self-contained enough to skip a utility hookup.
Minneapolis had planned to fund five to eight new restroom units, but that small order size failed to attract enough qualified bidders, according to MinnPost. Kathleen Mayell, the city's director of transportation planning and programming, said the five to eight planned units simply did not create a sufficient target market for a vendor, and told the outlet on August 20 that the delay was largely due to the limited number of vendors meeting city requirements. Beyond the six round-the-clock restrooms, downtown Minneapolis has around 30 public restrooms open only during business hours, leaving long overnight and off-hours gaps for anyone caught without a plan.
The Wish List That No Vendor Could Fully Meet
Minneapolis is not asking for a simple porta-potty swap. Per the same reporting, city restrooms must be moveable from site to site, independent of city utilities, equipped with self-cleaning technology, built to handle brutally cold weather, and outfitted with safety features. That is a tall order for most off-the-shelf restroom manufacturers, and it has narrowed the pool of companies willing or able to compete for a contract this small.
City staff explored options like the Portland Loo, a public-restroom concept designed by the city of Portland, but a November 2025 municipal presentation found those units cost between $15,000 and $25,000 and require direct utility hookups, according to The Minnesota Daily. That reporting also noted the units are not natively designed for sub-zero temperatures, a dealbreaker in a city where winter freezes require specialized heating and insulation. On the other end of the spectrum sits Throne, a smart, accessible restroom already operating in 11 U.S. cities, whose standalone units run on solar power with touchless app or tap-card access and a strict 10-minute time limit, per Hill & Lake Press. Those units skip a utility hookup entirely, but they come at a higher complexity and cost than a basic stall.
Where the $700,000 Actually Came From
The money itself has an unusual origin. The $700,000 traces back to the state's 2013 Streetcar Value Capture Fund, a pool the Minnesota Legislature expanded in 2021 to permit broader transit-related infrastructure spending, according to Hill & Lake Press. The fund was originally created for a streetcar line that was never built but remains authorized for another 25 years, meaning the city can tap it for restrooms without touching property tax revenue.
City Council Member Katie Cashman pushed for the $700,000 amendment to Minneapolis's budget for new public restrooms, and on August 27 the Minneapolis City Council voted to move that $700,000 from the general fund into the streetcar value capture fund, per MinnPost. City coordinator Tim Sexton described the transfer as a technical decision meant to keep the money available for toilets rather than a policy shift. Minneapolis had originally planned to construct new public restrooms on Nicollet Avenue as of December 2025, but the city has since put those plans on hold, per the city's own account relayed to MinnPost.
A Ranking That Masks a Downtown Gap
Nationally, Minneapolis actually ranks sixth among American cities for public toilets per 100,000 residents. But a November 2025 city committee report found the city offers 18 public toilets per 100,000 residents, still ahead of the national average but well behind regional peer Madison, Wisconsin, which offers 35 per 100,000, according to KARE 11. City leaders have pointed to that gap with Madison to justify pushing for more restrooms downtown specifically, where a public-restroom report identified seven public urination hotspots.
Downtown's restroom shortage traces partly to the pandemic, when major public facilities such as the ABC parking ramps near Target Field closed their public restrooms and never reopened them, as reported by MPR News. Private businesses tightened up too, shifting to customer-only restroom policies over safety concerns around the same time, according to the same report. Minneapolis's 311 system logged 27 complaints about human feces in public spaces and 26 reports of public urination between July 2024 and June 2025, per FOX 9.
Council Member Says Constituents Have Not Let Up
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury has reported that constituents continue to want the public-restroom plan implemented, and she has voiced support for continuing the work despite the setback, according to MinnPost. Chowdhury has said public restrooms would make public spaces and corridors more accessible to families and seniors, framing the issue as one that touches far more than downtown foot traffic.
For some residents, the stakes are more urgent than convenience. Gastrointestinal conditions impact about 1% of Americans and often require quick access to a restroom, per the same MinnPost reporting. Tovah Domenick, regional executive director of the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, said restrooms are a major factor in where people with gastrointestinal conditions choose to spend time, underscoring why advocates see this as more than a downtown aesthetics issue.
The city says it is now working to identify potential partner agencies interested in taking on public restrooms, though no timeline has been set for when the paused Nicollet Avenue project or any replacement plan might move forward. Downtown Minneapolis's bathroom shortage has drawn national attention before, most notably in April 2023 when Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea publicly described his frantic search for a restroom before performing at U.S. Bank Stadium, as detailed by Bring Me The News. The Minneapolis Downtown Council's 2035 Plan has since set a goal of expanding publicly accessible downtown restrooms by 20 percent, a target that now hinges on the city finding a vendor willing to build for a market of just a handful of units.
