NYC swimming pools open for the summer though lifeguard shortages persists

New York City’s public pools opened for the summer Thursday, but shortages in the city’s lifeguard ranks are persisting, raising concern about whether all of the Big Apple’s pools and beaches will be properly staffed through the season.

In a Thursday morning press conference at the newly-refurbished Astoria Pool in Queens, Mayor Adams said the city has some 600 lifeguards on staff.

That’s well short of the 1,400 lifeguards the city estimates it needs to properly staff all of its 53 public pools and 14 miles of beaches. Still, Adams said the current levels of lifeguards are already better than last summer.

“We’re opening our pools today with more guards than we had at this time last year,” he said.

A Parks Department spokeswoman said recruiting efforts are continuing through the beginning of July and that the agency hopes the number of lifeguards will tick up a bit.

Despite the staff shortages, 50 of the city’s pools are expected to stay open through the season, the spokeswoman said. Three pools — Tompkins Square Park, Harlem Meer and Tony Dapolito — are going to remain closed due to repair work.

But even as pools are open, Parks officials acknowledged that the staff shortages will mean the city once again won’t be able to offer lap swimming lessons this summer.

The free program used to operate Monday-Friday from 7 a.m.-8:30 a.m. and from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at each borough’s larger pools. Due to years of staff shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic, the lap swimming program hasn’t been operational since the summer of 2019.

It’s unclear how the staff shortages will impact city beaches, but several stretches of the Rockaways have remained unguarded this month. Last month, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said “some segments” of the city’s 14 miles of public beaches are likely going to stay closed this summer due to the staffing levels.

New Yorkers have been on edge about beach safety since last Friday, when two teenage boys disappeared in the surf while swimming off of Rockaway Beach’s Jacob Riis Park. The boys went into the water at abput 6:30 p.m., after lifeguards had gone off duty for the day.

As of Thursday, the boys had still not been found.