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Start by naming who manages the property; the rental company then quotes a spot the owner will approve before the truck rolls.
Brooklyn Porta Johns connects contractors, housing developers, store owners and event organizers in Brownsville, Brooklyn, with rental companies for porta potties, handwashing stations, ADA units and restroom trailers. The page covers two ZIPs: 11212, which is Brownsville itself, and 11239, Spring Creek on the Jamaica Bay shore.
Brownsville runs roughly from East New York Avenue south to Linden Boulevard, between Ralph Avenue on the west and Van Sinderen Avenue on the east. It holds several of the city's largest public housing campuses, a long list of new affordable buildings on city-owned land, and two shopping streets, Pitkin and Belmont Avenues.
That mix means the first question on almost every job is ownership. The spot you want might belong to NYCHA, to a developer's fenced lot, to a store landlord or to NYC Parks, and each one has its own rules about what can stand there and who has to agree to it.
The Brownsville, Van Dyke, Tilden, Seth Low and Marcus Garvey Houses are among the New York City Housing Authority developments in and around Brownsville. They are campuses: groups of apartment buildings set on shared grounds with internal walkways, lawns, playgrounds and parking, rather than buildings on a street grid.
Contractors working there, on roofs, elevators, boilers, brickwork or grounds, bring their own site setup, and the toilet is part of it. The unit's spot has to be agreed with NYCHA's side of the job, and it has to be somewhere a service truck can reach on a paved route without driving on paths meant for residents.
The development's management office or NYCHA's project contact usually knows which parking areas or service roads contractors use. Get that in writing if you can.
Follow the path from the street to the spot. Note any bollards, locked gates, speed bumps or tight turns between buildings, and tell the rental company about each.
Place the unit away from building entrances, playgrounds and benches, and face the door away from the walkway.
Ask for service visits at hours that avoid school drop-off and pickup on the walkways, and have a contact who can open any gate.
HPD released the Brownsville Plan in June 2017 after a year of community workshops. It set out over 2,500 new affordable homes, more than $1 billion of housing investment, and over $150 million in other City work, including park renovations and upgrades to open space on NYCHA developments.
Much of the housing goes on vacant city land offered to developers through a Request for Proposals, with each site given a theme: an arts and culture building at Rockaway-Chester, a center for trades and business at Christopher-Glenmore, and healthy food and services on Livonia Avenue. The plan also calls for mixed-use buildings along Livonia, New Lots and Hegeman Avenues, Rockaway Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard.
Infill is happening on NYCHA land too. At Van Dyke Houses, NYCHA, HPD and the city's Housing Development Corporation picked a developer for Dumont Commons, proposed as a 13-story building with 188 affordable apartments on the campus.
On a mid-rise site like these, plan toilets for the peak crew rather than the foundation crew, add a handwashing station for trades working with coatings, and read construction porta potty rental for the count and the code requirement.
Pitkin Avenue is a long-established shopping street with its own business improvement district, which the Brownsville Plan names as the channel for storefront improvement grants. Belmont Avenue, south of Pitkin, was picked for a commercial revitalization pilot. On both, that translates into facade work, new signs and interior build-outs.
A store renovation rarely has room for a unit on the sidewalk. Look for a rear yard, a spot in the back of the store once the old fixtures are out, or a nearby lot the landlord controls. If the only option is the curb, the city permit route on the permits and placement page applies, and it's worth asking the BID whether other work on the block is planned for the same weeks.
A small crew on a fit-out that lasts a month or longer is a good fit for monthly porta potty rental. If the store stays open during the work, keep the unit for the crew only and out of the customer entrance.
Betsy Head Park, about 10.5 acres between Dumont and Livonia Avenues at Strauss Street and Thomas S. Boyland Street, has ballfields, tennis and basketball courts and a large outdoor pool. Its 1936 play center became Brownsville's first individual city landmark in 2008, and the park reopened in 2020 and 2021 after a two-phase renovation.
A tournament, a back-to-school giveaway or a community day there runs on an NYC Parks permit. Don't plan around the pool building's restrooms for a crowd on the fields; ask Parks what will be open on your date, and bring units for the rest.
Count the crowd at its busiest hour and the length of the event, then use the porta potty calculator. Heat and food both push the number up.
Put an ADA accessible unit in each group of units, on a hard surface next to a path. For a daytime event that ends before dark, ask for delivery the evening before and pickup the next morning.
ZIP 11239 is Spring Creek, south of Linden Boulevard near Jamaica Bay. Most maps treat it as part of East New York rather than Brownsville; it shares this page because its ZIP is grouped with Brownsville's on the coverage list. Three places there come with their own landlord or agency.
Opened in 1974 as Starrett City and renamed Spring Creek Towers in 2002, the complex has 5,881 apartments in 46 buildings of 11 to 20 stories. Each of its eight sections has its own parking garage. It's a private, managed property, so building work there is arranged through management, which also decides where a contractor's unit can stand.
The shopping center at 501 Gateway Drive, on the north side of the Belt Parkway, opened in 2002, with a second phase added in 2014. Tenant fit-outs and parking-lot events there fall under the center's management and its lease rules. Ask them where contractors park and stage equipment.
A 407-acre park on the former Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue landfills, opened in 2019 with entrances at 950 Fountain Avenue and 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is run by State Parks, which asks large groups to get a park use permit.
The rest of East New York, in 11207 and 11208, is on the East New York page. West across Ralph Avenue, porta potty rental in Crown Heights covers 11213 and the Eastern Parkway blocks. For everywhere else, see the service area page or start from the Brooklyn Porta Johns home page.
Usually the contractor holding the job, because the unit is part of its site setup. A resident association planning a family day on the grounds is a different case: it should ask the development's management office first, since NYCHA controls where anything can stand on the campus.
That is a question for the complex's management, not the rental company. Garages have height limits and fire lanes, and a unit needs a truck to reach it for every service visit. For a contractor working inside the complex, ask management to name a surface spot the service truck can reach before you book.
State Parks asks large groups to obtain a park use permit, and that permit is the place to raise extra toilets. This is a New York State park, so the NYC Parks process does not apply. Call the park office with your date and headcount before you book any units.
No. The park is NYC Parks property, so the event runs on a Parks permit and the units go inside the permitted area. A block party on a residential street nearby uses a street activity permit instead. The permits and placement page explains both routes.
NYCHA, a developer, a store landlord or a park. Say which when you call, along with the nearest corner and the dates, and the quote can account for it.
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