REMARKS
Commissioner Sue Donoghue Discusses Operations and Challenges of NYC Parks' Beaches and Pools
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13 min
Commissioner Sue Donoghue provides an overview of New York City Parks' management of beaches and pools, emphasizing the value they add to community wellness and entertainment.
- Highlights the jurisdiction over 14 miles of public beaches and 65 public pool facilities.
- Discusses the free aquatic programming and swim instruction classes, aiming to enhance water safety and fitness.
- Announces the reopening of the Astoria pool after a $19 million renovation and the upcoming Shirley Chisholm and Roy Wilkins recreation centers.
- Addresses the challenge of hiring qualified lifeguards and the impact of legislation on extending operation hours.
- Invites council members to engage in discussions concerning legislative proposals and underscores the commitment to water safety and accessible public spaces.
Sue Donoghue
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Parts Committee and other members of the city council who are with us today.
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I'm Sue Donahue, the commissioner for New York City Parks.
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I'm pleased to be joined today by our 1st session.
Shekar Krishnan
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Sorry, commissioner.
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Do you mind just moving microphone a bit closer?
Sue Donoghue
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Not at all.
Shekar Krishnan
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Thank you.
Sue Donoghue
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I'm pleased to be joined today by our first deputy commissioner Iris Rodriguez Rosa, as well as other great members of my team.
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We have our assistant commissioner for public programs, Emily Chase, in the day it's with us, as well as Matt Drury, our chief of citywide legislative affairs.
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New York City Parks has long been committed to improving New Yorkers quality of life through aquatic recreation, promoting health, fitness, and safety awareness at all of our pools and beaches.
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Whether cooling off in the summer or getting fit in the winter There's nothing like a refreshing swim in one of our indoor or outdoor pools.
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And as you all well know, our city beaches are the primary Getaway summer destination for millions of New Yorkers when the temperatures start to rise.
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I'd like today to begin by offering a brief overview of the beaches and pools under our jurisdiction.
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In addition to the 148 Miles of Waterfront Parkland, our agency maintains over fourteen miles of public beaches, which we manage as 9 separate beach areas located at various points along New York City shoreline, all of which are open to the public for swimming and other recreational activities completely for free.
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Our beaches are open for swimming from Memorial Day weekend through the week after Labor Day.
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New York City Parks also has a total of 65 public pool facilities under our jurisdiction, 45 of which nearly 70% are located in neighborhoods that have been declared environmental justice areas or potential environmental justice areas as defined by the EJNYC report, which identified low income and or minority communities based on U.
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S.
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Census data.
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53 of our 65 facilities host outdoor pools ranging in size from the massive Olympic pools van Cortland Park in the Bronx and McCarron Park in Brooklyn, which is 330 feet long and well over 4 feet deep.
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To our medium sized intermediate pools down to the wonderful mini pools located in many of our playgrounds.
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Where kids can splash and enjoy the cool water on a hot day.
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Many of our larger outdoor pool facilities offer smaller waiting pools, primarily used by younger children and their families, alongside the larger, deeper pools.
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One of these iconic larger pools, Astoria pool in Queens, originally opened on July 4th of 1936.
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1 of president Franklin D Roosevelt's new deal public works projects.
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That help the country recover from the Great Depression.
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The nearly one hundred year old pool is the city's oldest and largest.
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Over a full acre in size.
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We're thrilled to announce that this historic facility will be reopening to the public this summer.
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Having undergone a full scale renovation, a $19,000,000 investment in this beloved community amenity.
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We've reconstructed the pool shell, installed new filtration, recirculation and treatment systems, and upgraded other elements to improve pool operations and provide a more enjoyable experience for pool visitors.
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We're looking forward to reopening the pool at the start of our outdoor season in late June, so Queens residents and other New Yorkers from all of the city can once again enjoy this revitalized public space.
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We invite anyone on the committee to join us in jumping in that day for our pool opening.
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The remaining 12
Mercedes Narcisse
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of our
Sue Donoghue
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65 facilities host indoor pools, usually located with a larger New York City Park recreation centers.
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New York City Park's indoor pools are crucial in delivering swimming opportunities to New Yorkers year round.
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Our indoor pools are nearly all intermediate sized, roughly 60 to 70 feet long.
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Except for the larger Olympic pool at the aquatic center at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
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With an with an NYC Recreation Center membership, which is completely free for anyone twenty four or younger.
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And available to adults and seniors for a very, very low cost.
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New Yorkers can enjoy our indoor pools and our robust offerings of aquatic programming for no additional costs whatsoever.
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We are pleased to be working in partnership with New York city DDC to advance 2 new recreation center projects that will include indoor pools.
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The $141,000,000 Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center at Noestrin Playground in Brooklyn and a brand new $131,000,000 recreation center facility at Roy Wilkins Park in Southeast Queens.
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These will be the 1st new New York City pools in over 15 years, delivering access to state of the art, recreational, and aquatic facilities to the communities that need the most.
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Beyond the important benefits for health and fitness that aquatic programming can provide, tragic drowning incident accidents over the years have proved all too often that water safety and swim instruction can save lives.
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Accidental drowning is the 2nd leading cause of unintentional injury related death among children under the age of fourteen.
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With a disproportionate impact on black and brown youth, which is why we are very proud to offer a wide variety of free aquatic programming and swim instruction classes so that New Yorkers of any age can learn vital water safety skills develop healthy fitness habits, and have fun in the water throughout their lives.
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This takes place primarily through our learn to swim program, as well as through Swim For Life.
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Our targeted initiative conducted in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
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Swim for life focuses on 2nd grade students, providing them with top certified swim instruction at our indoor pools during the school day.
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As a regular part of their weekly class schedule, reaching nearly 2400 2nd grade students so far this fiscal year.
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We also offer swim classes tailored for adults and senior citizens, and over 9000 New Yorkers of all ages have taken advantage of our swim instruction and other aquatic classes so far this fiscal year.
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Joining hundreds of thousands of others that have benefited from our whim instruction programs over the past decade.
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Lastly, we routinely incorporate dry land water safety instruction into our youth public programming, encouraging kids to be water safe in different environments in and around water.
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Including water parks, oceans, lakes, and rivers.
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Keeping our beaches and pools clean, enjoyable and safe is our top priority.
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And to make it a reality, it takes an amazing team effort from an incredibly hardworking staff, including our maintenance and operations workers, aquatics programming staff, Park's enforcement patrol, and, of course, our dedicated course of lifeguards.
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As we've discussed with the council, many employers are still facing hiring challenges in a post COVID world.
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And it's been well documented that qualified lifeguards are in short supply across the country.
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While many US cities had to make difficult choices in the last few years to close, some or all of their public beaches and pools, or start charging attendance fees.
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We're proud that New York City has been able to keep all of our public pools and beaches open for free public use.
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A testament to the city's commitment to equitable access.
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Despite significant operational challenges, 2023 was a successful summer season for New York City Parks, with millions of visitors to our beaches and pools.
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And we look forward to having New Yorkers come out and enjoy the sun and find all summer long.
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We launched our lifeguard recruitment efforts for the 2024 beach and pool season late last year and are well underway in our training and certification process.
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To make the upcoming season as successful as possible.
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We were pleased to recently announce that the city has reached an agreement on a new hourly wage of $22 an hour for seasonal lifeguards, plus a $1000 bonus for all returning lifeguards that work through peak season.
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We've continued to explore every avenue to recruit and retain more qualified lifeguards for the 2024 season.
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Including increasing opportunities for potential lifeguards to test and qualify.
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However, the reality is the is that the entire nation is still facing a very challenging environment for lifeguard hiring.
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Despite these challenges, keeping our beach goers safe will continue to be our top priority, and our incredible lifeguards will continue to be a core component of our beach and pool operations.
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I now turn to the legislation being formally heard today, intro 275 and intro 130.
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Intro275 as currently drafted would require New York City Parks to extend the hours of operations of our beaches outdoor pools, and indoor pools, and would extend the beach and outdoor pool operating season.
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We are reviewing this recently proposed legislation and look forward to discussing it further with the council.
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We share the council's desire to offer as much access to our public spaces as possible, but need to be clear that the legislation as drafted would present very substantial budgetary and operational challenges.
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Especially in light of the existing hiring market and fiscal environment.
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We are very proud of our extensive lifeguard recruitment efforts and process improvements.
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But the stark reality is that we still face a very challenging environment for hiring.
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Which means that the expansion of the beach and pool season and operating hours proposed by the legislation is unlikely to be feasible anytime in the foreseeable near future.
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We have kept beaches and pools open for a week past Labor Day for the past several years and have consistently found that visitation decreases sharply in the final weeks of the season.
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It's also important to note that our staffing ranks begin to decrease as the season nears its end.
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Since most of our seasonal lifeguards are students that need to return to school or summer employees such as teachers.
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Who need to return to their primary occupation in the fall.
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Intro 130 would require DSNY to establish facilities near the 10 largest city parks to process leaf and woodways from those parks.
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We are reviewing this recently proposed legislation and look forward to discussing it further with the council.
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We share the council's support of sustainable practices, and New York City Parks and DSNY work together in a variety of ways to ensure that yard and leafways collected from city parks are kept out of landfills.
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We would be happy to work with DSNY to provide the council with more information about those ongoing efforts.
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We'd like to thank the council for their continued interest and advocacy regarding these subjects, and we know how important water safety is for all New York.
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Us.
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If there are any questions on the legislation or other related topics, we'd be happy to answer those at this time.