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NYC summer camps brace for another year without pool access
By
Sophia Chang
Published May 2, 2023
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By
Sophia Chang
Published May 2, 2023
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New York City's summer camp operators are bracing for another summer without swimming pool access, a cut partly caused by the city’s ongoing lifeguard shortage.
The Young Judaea Sprout Brooklyn Day Camp in Red Hook used to be known for its swimming program, which was held at the neighborhood's Olympic-sized city public pool located across the street. Before the pandemic, kids at the camp went swimming there every day, according to Alana Tilman, the program’s director.
But the city hasn’t granted swimming permits to summer camps since the summer of 2019 — and this summer's swim situation isn’t looking promising as city officials forecast more lifeguard staffing problems.
“On a daily basis, camp parents come to pick up their kids and they see other people swimming in the Red Hook Pool,” said Tilman. “And they don't understand why we can't do that.”
Day camps can’t bring kids to swim without permits that grant a dedicated area for the campers in the pool. The city also requires that day camps applying for swimming permits hire additional private lifeguards and staff for supervision.
Because her campers couldn’t use the Red Hook Pool last summer, Tilman said her program paid $50,000 for access and transportation to a private pool in East Midwood. But the kids at the camp didn’t have the daily access to swimming offered in prior years, and the extra costs forced Tilman to scale back other activities. She plans to do the same this year.
Tilman said it’s “endlessly frustrating” that her camp has been fully staffed every summer since the pandemic, “but the parks department can't get their act together.”
“New York City is only making the lifeguard crisis worse because there's thousands of kids each summer who aren't learning how to swim, who then aren't going to be lifeguards in the future,” Tilman said.
Parks department officials said last month they are on track to hire around 900 lifeguards for the season, which starts when the city's beaches open on Memorial Day weekend. The city’s outdoor pools open in late June.
That’s far short of the 1,400 lifeguards the department hopes to hire each year – and it likely means the city’s pools won’t have enough staffing to offer special programming, like swim permits for camps.
“It's too early right now to have a reasonable estimate for how many lifeguards we will have staffing beaches and outdoor pools this summer. Since December, we have been actively and aggressively recruiting for lifeguards, including implementing important operational changes to expand the opportunity to qualify,” said parks department spokesperson Dan Kastanis. “While we are hoping for the best, it will take some time to build back to pre-pandemic staffing levels.”
Alicia Skovera, executive director of the American Camp Association for New York and New Jersey, feared a lack of swim lessons at summer camps means more kids are at risk of drowning.
“This is often a safety issue for children who live near bodies of water. We are in New York City and, you know, clearly there are oceans and bodies of water all around us,” Skovera said. “Not to mention that it's fun, right?”
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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