John Jay Park Pool, June 11, 2020
New York City is now in phase 2 of reopening from the coronavirus shutdown, and Governor Cuomo has said it’s OK for pools to open, but there are no signs that our pools will serve us this summer. It’s awfully hot these days, and in any other year this would be the magical time that we first dip into shockingly cool city pools — just when we can’t wait any longer.
Many experts have written and spoken about the importance of this vital cooling infrastructure, however, Mayor Bill de Blasio hasn’t budged.
Under normal times, our beaches would have already been open for a month. Instead, swimmers are rising extra early to have their swims done by 9 a.m., which is when ticketing starts. We know that lifeguards have been training, and there is snow fencing up on the Coney Island boardwalk possibly to be used to limit access in the service of social distancing, but there is no official word about beaches opening either.
Meanwhile, count me one among nearly 2 million extremely frustrated and hot New Yorkers.
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