City leaves swimmers high and dry

Monday afternoon, a day before their high school graduation, a group of friends enjoy a sunny, 75-degree day in Van Cortlandt Park. They grill hot dogs and sit in the shade, all just steps from the massive swimming pool.

Except none of these teenagers are making any waves. The pool is closed, and isn’t scheduled to open until June 29 when the city parks department finally opens the free outdoor public swimming areas for business.

In many other places shooing away the last vestiges of a rather cold winter, public swimming pools open in time for Memorial Day weekend. But not in New York City. In fact, the Vannie swimming pool sat completely empty until just last Thursday when water was finally pumped into the Olympic-sized facility. 

“We’re just sitting at home with no activities to do, so we could use that pool open earlier than the 29th,” said Leslie Guridy, who graduated from Discovery High School on June 27.

Guridy lives on West 238th Street, just four blocks from the park. She often frequents the pool during the scorching summer months.

“There are not a lot of beaches nearby, so it’s nice to be able to just walk to the park and go to the pool,” Guridy said. “There’s families with younger kids who got out of school earlier who need the pool.”

The nearest public waterfront is Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park. From north Riverdale, it’s a 20-minute drive. But for those without a car, expect at least an hour on public transit, making at least one transfer from the train to the bus. 

There are many who believe the pools stay closed until the end of June because children are too busy in school to swim before that. However, the city’s parks department said it’s actually more about staffing — many of the employees working the pools are students seeking summer jobs.

“The additional lifeguards we hire for the 53 pools (in the city) often come from the same place our swimmers do: our schools,” the parks department said in a statement. “That’s why the end of school means the start of pools.”

Yet, the parks department didn’t explain why such restrictions don’t prevent public beaches from opening as early as Memorial Day weekend.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council have recognized the need for the pools to remain open longer. For the past three years, they have extended the pool and beach season after its traditional Labor Day closing date to Sept. 10. The additional six days cost the city an additional $1.7 million.

That means it typically costs the city more than $283,000 a day to maintain the pools. If they had opened Memorial Day weekend, that would cost just under $10 million.

With the weather creeping up to 80 degrees, there aren’t many places one can go to escape the sun. Although swimming pools can only do so much to help control it, extreme heat already kills more people than any other type of extreme weather event both in New York City and the United States, according to the National Weather Service. 

Plus, according to a new study conducted by Columbia University, the city may see more than 3,000 people — or 1-in-2,500 — die each year from heat waves by 2080 thanks to global warming.

Earlier this year, the city council even announced a $106 million measure, “Cool Neighborhoods NYC,” to counter the health problems caused by extreme temperatures. 

Practicality aside, many want the pools to be open earlier simply for the enjoyment it provides.

“We need the pool to cool down,” Guridy said. “Plus it’s fun to go to.”