Swimming banned at Riis Park after bacteria found in water

  

 

NBC News

A popular beach escape for sweltering New Yorkers took a hit this week, the same day heat indices climbed back near the triple digits.

Park officials announced the closure of all swimming at Jacob Riis Park until further notice citing unsafe water conditions.

Samples taken from water along the Queens beachline produced high bacteria levels that exceed the National Park Service safety standards.

Regular swimmers to NYC beaches know well the challenges of getting in the water this summer. In addition to a handful of shark sightings that have suspended swimming for brief periods, large stretches of the Rockaways have been closed through much of the summer for construction and restoration of the beach. 

 

 

Curtis Sliwa goes for a forbidden swim in defiance of de Blasio's pandemic beach protocol

Mayor de Blasio opens the beaches for only the surfers to play in

NY Post

Wipe out!
 
City beaches will be a surfers’ paradise, but swimmers will be sidelined under a wishy-washy set of rules dropped by the city and the NYPD on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend.
 
“The beaches are open, but the water is not for swimming,” said Brian Conroy, assistant chief of the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, in a press briefing at the Abe Stark Sports Center in Coney Island.
 
“You can go in ankle deep, wade in the water,” Conroy continued. “Surfers will be allowed into the water.”
 
The half-measure move was swiftly blasted as all wet.
 
“This is just more mixed messaging,” said City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn). “We need to have very clear guidelines here, because if you don’t you’re just setting yourself up for tragedy and-or confrontation.
 
“If I carry a surfboard, can I go in the water even if I don’t know how to surf?”
 
City Councilman Donovan Richards, a Queens Democrat representing sandy Far Rockaway, said that he was left “scratching my head” over the gnarly policy.
 
“Are they going to give swim tests to surfers before they go into the water?” asked Richards. “If you’re saying the water is closed to anyone then they have to be closed for everyone.


 “It sends a bad message. It says the waters are open.”
 
Politicians weren’t the only ones who feared that the rules would confuse beachgoers trying to enjoy a little sea air and sunshine amid the coronavirus pandemic.
 
“It’s the same water. If you’re surfing, you have to go out and swim first, right?” pointed out Pat Singer, head of Brooklyn’s Brighton Neighborhood Association. “The mayor ought to rethink that one. It’s going to cause mixed messages.”

de Blasio has been exploiting this pandemic and confusing his constituents since the day he told everyone to go to the movies when the outbreak began.


But there is nothing mixed about this. As seen in multiple viral videos, there is a caste system with enforcing pandemic protocols. This is another blatant act of favoritism to the only citizens the mayor appreciates the most, the frivolous spending hipsters.

Arverne development resists hipster invasion

From the NY Times:

The growing popularity of surfing in the Rockaways has created a resurgence, attracting large beach crowds, fueling new businesses and generating other economic boosts.

But it has also made the two New York City-sanctioned surfing beaches, near Beach 90th and Beach 67th Streets in Queens, packed with wave seekers.

“Surfing has completely exploded, and we’re jammed into small areas,” said Conrad Karl, a local surfer and restaurateur. “We need to spread out a little bit. It would be safer.”

Calling the crowded lineups of surfers potentially dangerous, many surfers are pushing for a new or expanded surfing area, specifically along a stretch from Beach 66th Street to Beach 60th, an area that Mr. Karl calls “basically dead, going to waste” since it is closed to both swimming and surfing.

But, as it happens, the surfers’ campaign has collided with another explosion in the area: the infusion of hundreds of new residents into the vast Arverne by the Sea development along that same stretch of beach.

Many of its residents also want those beaches opened, but for swimming. The problem is that city officials forbid swimming and surfing in the same area, because swimmers and surfers could collide.