REMARKS
Proposed legislation: Intro 275 - Extended pool and beach hours
0:09:12
·
148 sec
Council Member Krishnan introduces the first point of his five-point plan to improve water safety: expanding the hours and seasons for pools and beaches. He discusses the proposed legislation, Intro 275, which aims to increase access and accommodate the changing climate.
- Intro 275 mandates operating hours from 8 AM to 8 PM for pools and beaches
- The proposed bathing season would run from mid-May to mid-October
- This change would add 4 hours each day and 7 weeks each season, effectively doubling access time
- The council member emphasizes the need for extended lifeguard presence due to climate change and longer warm seasons
- He addresses potential objections about lifeguard shortages, calling for a change in thinking to address this public health and safety crisis
Shekar Krishnan
0:09:12
Earlier this year, when we held another hearing on this very same topic, I discussed a 5 point plan of action where the city could intervene and act to dramatically improve water safety.
0:09:25
First, the city should expand the hours and seasons for pools and beaches.
0:09:31
To be safe in the water, New Yorkers need to be exposed to the water.
0:09:35
Outdoor public pools and beaches should be open to families when weather allows on a schedule that accommodates working parents and their children.
0:09:45
The bill I've sponsored intro to number 275, which the committee heard back in March mandates that operating hours should be from 8 AM to 8 PM, and the bathing season should run from mid May to mid October.
0:10:00
This will add 4 hours each day and 7 weeks each season, effectively doubling the time that New Yorkers can use outdoor pools and beaches.
0:10:10
We simply need to extend the hours that lifeguards are available to maintain safety at the beaches and this bill does exactly that.
0:10:19
When it is hot, people will attempt to swim and short of finding physical barriers to close beaches, which no one wants, we need more personnel to keep watch over beach goers.
0:10:31
Simply put, we have to be realistic about this.
0:10:35
Because of climate change, it is getting warmer earlier in the year and it is staying warmer till later in the year, including today.
0:10:43
And the reality is when it stays warmer for longer during the year and into the evening, New Yorkers will swim.
0:10:51
They will want to swim.
0:10:53
For many parents, for whom the beaches are a refuge because they don't have access to a pool, and the communities are hot.
0:11:04
And the streets are hot.
0:11:06
Going to the beaches are a way to get themselves and their children to cool off.
0:11:12
And I'm sure we'll hear that there aren't enough lifeguards to actually implement this bill.
0:11:18
But notice the cyclical pattern, the circular reasoning that we're engaging in as a city if that's how we approach it.
0:11:26
We need more.
0:11:27
We need our pools and beaches open longer, but we can't do it because we don't have enough lifeguards to do so.
0:11:35
That kind of thinking has to change.
0:11:37
This is a public health and a public safety crisis.
