NYC beachgoers bummed by lack of lifeguards — which is causing unsocial distancing
What a (beach) bummer.
The Big Apple’s beaches finally opened for swimming earlier this month — but long stretches of surf still remain off-limits due to a lack of lifeguards, making it tough to socially distance in the waters where taking a dip is allowed.
In Brooklyn’s Coney Island, empty lifeguard chairs dotted large swaths of the three-mile beach as the sun beamed and temps soared into the 90s Thursday.
“I’m hot and I want to go in the water, but without lifeguards it’s dangerous when the tide comes in,” said Erica Flores, 28, who was on the sand with her 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.
Flores said city Parks Department workers have been shooing beachgoers out of the waters where there is no lifeguard posted up.
“They tell me if I want to go swimming, I have to be squeezed in with all those other people, which defeats the purpose,” the Coney Island mom said.
Out of 22 bays on the beach checked by a Post reporter, there were lifeguards spotted at just 13 of them Thursday.
Lifeguards on the beach acknowledged there is a shortage.
“We are short-staffed because of COVID. Half of the lifeguards who worked last season haven’t come back,” a lifeguard at West 19th Street said.
Another lifeguard said, “A lot of lifeguards just don’t want to work now for the same reason lots of people in other profession don’t — they are afraid of getting sick.”
Parks Department spokesperson Crystal Howard insisted that the city is not experiencing a “lifeguard shortage” and that “attrition is commonplace throughout each season.”
Indeed, the city has hired about 500 lifeguards this season — roughly 100 short of last season, according to the Parks Department.
A Parks Department worker patrolling the beach Thursday said that employees with the agency have been ordered to police the ocean and boot swimmers out where there are no lifeguards.
“There aren’t enough lifeguards for all the bays, so the city assigned Parks workers to supervise,” the worker said as swimmers flouted the rules.
“I’m going to call them out of the water in a second,” she said. “I’m going to have to get a bullhorn, because I don’t have the voice to keep yelling at them.”
Beachgoer Candy Sullivan, 57, of Bay Ridge expressed her gripes about the situation.
“We were trapped in the house for almost four months. You think we want to be trapped at the beach now, now that we can go outside?” she said. “I don’t want to be stuck on the sand, harassed if I want to go in the water.”
“The Parks worker said if I want to go in the water, I have to go to the other side of the pier,” Sullivan said, adding, “Why should I? So I can be around 1,000 other people who I’m supposed to stay 6-feet-away from? You should have lifeguards at every station.”
At Rockaway Beach in Queens certain sections with no lifeguards were also closed for swimming.
“There should be more lifeguards,” said Bushwick resident Kami Singh, 29, as she took the sun on Rockaway.
Singh said she preferred to sit in the no-swimming section “rather than going where the lifeguards are and sitting on top of everybody.”
The city’s eight public beaches officially opened for swimming on July 1.
“A significant amount of our 14 miles of beaches are safely open across the city — there is enough room for everyone to spread out and enjoy themselves,” insisted Howard, who nevertheless acknowledged, “As in years past, we will continue to adjust open sections for safe swimming accordingly.”
Howard added that beach attendance citywide is down nearly 20 percent since lifeguards returned to the sand from the coronavirus lockdown compared to last year. Overall attendance since the COVID-19-impacted summer season began is down more than 2 million, Howard said.
Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn) said he “predicted” the city’s beaches wouldn’t be fully staffed with lifeguards “when the mayor dragged his feet on this decision” to open them.
“They let precious time go by and it’s unacceptable,” said Treyger, adding that “as a result, fewer people applied” to be a lifeguard.
“Fewer people are working and now they’re just cherry picking bays to open,” Treyger continued. “This is a consequence of the mayor’s inability to make a decision.”