Public bathrooms in midtown:

 Ever try asking in a restaurant, bar or store if you can use the bathroom
 when you are in midtown and really need to go? They treat you like some
 kind of gutter slime.... and either tell you that they don't have one...
 otr that it's for customers only or else they make you beg for the
 privlege of using their trashed filthy stinking facility.
 Heres the secret. Skip the resturants.... walk into any of the big fancy
 office buildings.... take the elevator to any floor.... march up to the
 receptionist and ask for directions to the bathroom... if you are female
 he or she will probably need to give you a key. Thats all there is to
 it...  it works 90% of the time and the bathrooms are lamost always clean
 and nicely appointed.
        - Fourway Flytrap

 Yes, but don't forget about hotel lobby restrooms.  They're easy to get
 to, and usually as nicely appointed.
        - OP Phantom

 Since we'e talking about toilets - the new City Toilet in City Hall Park.
 20 Minutes for a quarter, private, and sanitized after each use - just like
 the ones in Paris.  This one is made by Wall City, or something like that,
 and it's green, just like the city parks, fits in with the recreated antique
 subway entrance at City Hall Park, and is rather more fortress-like than
 the Parisian onex, in keeping with the security needs of New York City.  My
 favourite little side-point is the advertising kiosk nearby, completely
 dedicated to this same Wall City company.  It features large, designer
 posters with the headline, "A toilet of modern art." 
         -rg
.