Memorial Day weekend launched swimming season in New York City; not in the city’s pools, which don’t open until June 29, but swimming at ocean beaches and some of the rivers around New York. The Parks Department maintains 14 miles of beaches, all of which are open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
This past Sunday, while many New Yorkers headed to Orchard Beach and Coney Island, some brave souls headed to Battery Park City for Lady Liberty’s 3rd annual swim from the South to North Coves. The Manhattan Island Foundation (MIF) organizes swimming events around Manhattan waters with the goal of raising public awareness about the waters that surround New York. There is even a Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (28.5 miles around!) with international participants. These events are the only time that the public is allowed to swim in the lower Hudson, where currents and boat traffic can be too much for even the strongest swimmers, with the Foundation getting clearance from the U.S. Coast Guard and N.Y.P.D.
The Lady Liberty race reminded me of Mayor Bloomberg’s plaNYC to open 90 percent of New York’s waterways to recreation by 2030. The plan didn’t specify what form of recreation, but I hope it includes boating, as well as fishing and swimming. I often feel that public access to the water is a human right that New Yorkers forget about. For many of us (myself included) the waterways are most often experienced as something to pass over or under as we travel from borough to borough.
In the March 18th Sunday New York Times, founders of the Waterkeeper Alliance wrote an op-ed arguing that making New York waterways safe for recreational boating was one of Bloomberg’s least ambitious goals, because it doesn’t require improving water quality. Striving for a fishable and swimmable harbor, they argue would be a far more meaningful goal. They also opine that the City has and will continue to focus on end of the pipe solutions (treating the water) instead of limiting the problem at the source before the water flows into the system. Capturing the water before it ends up in the sewer system would allow it to be reused for irrigating plantings or for commercial or residential use.
As Josh Weise mentioned here last month, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are the main culprit for the city’s poor rivers and beach water quality. The city does include some source control measures in PlaNYC, like redesigning tree pits to cache runoff, expanding bluebelts that would filter greywater, and encouraging green roofs. In June, the City Department of Environmental Protection must submit to state regulators its long-term proposal for controlling discharges from CSOs. New Yorkers will then be able to determine if the City heeded the Riverkeeper, EPA and other organization’s advice to focus its plan more on source control measures and what the Mayor’s intent was when he said waterway recreation.
Years ago, many people wouldn't be caught dead in the Hudson River. But before World War II, swimming and rowing were major sports around New York. The dream of floating or movable river swimming pools around New York has long been discussed in New York. Ann Buttenwieser, a longtime parks advocate, and Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society, have proposed using sanitized garbage barges with pool-size holes in the middle for river swimming. Last fall one of these swimming-pool barges moved from a New Orleans to Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park for further construction, and should be ready for swimmers in 2008. The barges could be hauled to neighborhoods and anchored there during the summer. They are similar to river pools that the city had 75 years ago. Although pricey, they are still a lot less expensive than building a conventional swimming pool and can better connect children with the rivers and city’s maritime industries.
So, readers you will have to wait till next summer to swim in a barge. But if you missed the Lady Liberty swim, there's still time to enroll as a swimmer or volunteer for the Park to Park Swim on June 10th as well as a summer full of other swim events. While swimming in New York waters may seem like an impossible dream, or an activity only for the bolder among us, many organizations are trying to help people gain access and familiarity with their local waterways through boating and canoeing. Below is a small sample of organizations that run boating programs through the summer months.
Manhattan:
Downtown Boathouse is dedicated to providing waterfront access and education to the Hudson River, located in Hudson River Park, at Pier 96. It runs free public kayaking programs. Starting June 16 though mid-September, three-hour morning trips occur on Saturdays. There are also facilities available to the public for launching small boats.
Bronx/Northern Manhattan:
Friends of Brook Park, on June 30, is holding a full day trip on the Harlem River with Harry Bubbins.
Brooklyn/Queens:
The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is dedicated to providing waterfront access and education. GDCC runs programs on the shorelines of Gowanus, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. The Dredgers encourage people to think of New York Harbor as a place for recreation and education as well as a waterway for commuters, tourists and goods. During the past season, members logged over 2,000 trips on the Gowanus Canal. During the 2003 season, over 1,000 individuals participated in their programs. Volunteers in Dredgers programs monitor the health of oysters and sea grass. All activities and workshops are free and their facilities are also available to the public for launching canoes, rowboats and kayaks.
GDCC also provides access to the western Queens waterfront at the Long Island City Community Boathouse, running programs at Anable Basin and Anable Cove, Halletts Cove, and Newtown Creek. This increased waterfront activity fosters environmental awareness and reconnects Queens residents with their estuary.
