Lack of public bathrooms in Portland is ‘absurd,’ business owners say [Video]

Every day, someone will walk into Lisa-Marie’s Made in Maine in the Old Port and ask if there’s a bathroom they can use. Every day, Marie Stewart Harmon has to say no.

It’s the No. 1 question she gets from tourists and residents, she said, and it’s frustrating to hear they’d like to stay and shop, but they have to find a restroom.

“If you aren’t buying a beverage or eating a meal somewhere, the public restroom situation is pretty dire,” said Stewart Harmon, the general manager.

The lack of easily accessible public bathrooms has been a mounting problem in Portland for years. Recent efforts to add more semi-permanent toilets in the city have been promising and successful – a new one opened in Deering Oaks just this week – but business owners say it’s not enough.

“I can’t send the mom with three kids in tow to Deering Oaks,” …