After dadvocates raise stink, new diaper-changing stations on way for Columbus men's rooms

Changes are coming for Columbus' babies, and the men in their lives.

While baby changing stations have become relatively common, they are predominantly placed in women's restrooms, while men have been left to their own devices to try to find a suitable place to put a new diaper on their small children.

Despite a National Center for Health Statistics report that 90% of fathers who live with their children bathe, diaper, and dress them at least several times a week, most restaurants and stores don't have changing stations in the men's room, or don't offer a family changing station that both men and women can use.

On Monday evening, Columbus City Council set out to help change the situation by approving $25,000 to purchase 130 new fold-down changing stations that are to be targeted for men's and gender-neutral restrooms at city facilities and small businesses.

To speed the measure to a vote, City Council even declared the situation an emergency — and in some circumstances it can be.

Just ask Matt Lofy what happened at his son's second birthday celebration.

"We were at an extremely family friendly location, and wouldn't you know it, we had a diaper 'blow out.' And I ended up on a crisp, wet October day changing a diaper from the back of a Ford Escape, getting drenched," said Lofy, executive director of the Worthington Area Chamber.

Lofy, along with two associates from The Dadass Podcast, an award-winning parenting podcast series which launched in spring 2020, and the CBUS Dads Blog Council advocated for the money.

Or as they would say, dadvocated.

When they discovered that former City Council member Michael Stinziano, now Franklin County auditor, had pushed for funding to install equal-opportunity changing stations back in 2017, Lofy said the group's reaction was: "We've got to do something."

They contacted Council member Rob Dorans, himself a new father, who backed the effort. City Council agreed to partner on the effort.

"We thought, yeah, yeah, especially coming out of COVID and families are sort of out in the world again," Dorans told The Dispatch after Monday's meeting. The city will handle the purchases and distribute the stations, and businesses are responsible for installing them, he said.

"This helps ensure that we have them in all the (city Department of) Recreation and Parks facilities, in the men's rooms, as well," Dorans said. "So we're sort of also taking a look at making sure the city facilities also have the same kind of resources to help folks change diapers."

Dorans said he hopes to have another round of fold-down changing stations distributed at some point in the future, and is exploring whether to require them through building codes and licensing moving forward.

"We definitely want to try and make sure that this is more of an equitable situation, because, again, it's incredibly frustrating," Dorans said. "Especially for someone who has a little one, and oftentimes my son is with me by myself, and he'll need a diaper change, and I've got nowhere to do it.

"And that's not fun for him or I."

As the dadvocates were spreading awareness of the issue, they heard from a lot of women, too, who didn't appreciate that society had seemingly assigned to them all public diaper-changing duties.

"We especially got to hear the mom's side of the story," Lofy said, "of how the women's restrooms are the ones out in public with the changing stations.

"Our son is now 3½-years-old and fully — I should knock on wood first — nearly fully potty trained, but this is still an important cause and addresses not just families with kids, but others."

In other city business Monday.

• Council added provisions requiring a signed contract whenever any person or business hires any "freelance worker to provide any service" over $250, spelling out what services are to be rendered and the date by which "the hiring party must pay," which can be no longer than 30 days later. The ordinance brings freelancers — defined as an individual or business composed of no more than one person — under the city's wage theft code, which was passed in 2020 seeking to ensure that employees get paid for work they provided. The obligation to prepare a simple contract is on the hiring party, the ordinance says, although both sides may participate in drafting it. Freelancers can now file complaints with the city that could launch investigations to try to recover unpaid wages, Dorans said.

• Council approved another $1.14 million funding installment for the Columbus Promise, an initiative between the city, Columbus State Community College and private donors that guarantees free Columbus State tuition for graduating Columbus City Schools seniors, currently set to end with the 2024 graduating class. Students also receive a $1,000 stipend per year. Last year's graduating class, the first in the program, doubled the district's new enrollment at Columbus State from the year before to close to 700, Council President Shannon Hardin said. The city has committed $4.5 million to the effort by 2025.

• Council approved a $429,500 contract with Community for New Direction to provide violence interruption and crisis response activities that include responding to specific violent confrontations, working to mediate and diffuse conflict tensions, and actively promoting peace building among youth. The organization will maintain a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week schedule responding to calls regarding youth violence, such as shootings, aggravated assaults, homicides, and other violent incidents, similar to a $329,500 contract awarded the organization and other groups last year.

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Men's rooms to get diaper-changing stations under Columbus program