Opinion: NYC Needs a Serious Conversation About Swimming

It s never been more major that the citizens and private sector address this safety predicament by expanding our configuration of pools and supporting programs that teach children to swim The inhabitants pool at Goodhue Park in Staten Island in Ed Reed Mayoral Photography Office Confession time I m a lifelong New Yorker who grew up in a neighborhood that abuts the East River secured millions of dollars to restore one of the city s bulk iconic constituents pools and never learned how to swim Unfortunately the same is true for plenty of children growing up around the city this day It s why as we prepare for summer a multitude of New Yorkers are extra vigilant about their children going near the water to cool off Headlines about missing children that evolve into drownings have become far too common from June to August when young people with scant other outlets seek the unfamiliar terrain of the water to cool off This has to stop It s never been so pivotal for us to reverse the trend and ensure as countless New York City children as achievable learn how to swim It will certainly take all of us to get this done but there s already a architecture of programs like the one I now run ready to work with city and state leaders to make this happen It s never been more critical that the residents and private sector address this safety situation by expanding our arrangement of pools and supporting programs that teach children to swim We know the challenge of the work ahead Seven people drowned while swimming off of New York City beaches last year which marked the highest number of fatalities since the pandemic Almost all of those were off the shores of the Rockaways The City Council to its credit has raised the alarm bell as Speaker Adrienne Adams noted in her State of the City address last year that one in four New York children don t know how to swim The ratio of Black New York children she noted is an alarming one in three There isn t a magic bullet to a method here Of subject we unfailingly need more lifeguards at city beaches to spring into action when there s an exigency Then there s the fact that a City Council analysis detected a whopping million New Yorkers more than a third of our population live in a district that doesn t have a residents pool That alone is a trouble because pools provide a safe well-staffed venue for young people to learn and then safely swim Constituents pools are significant and the currently operated is certainly not enough Even still all but of those pools are outdoors which means they re only open basically two months out of the year essentially Fourth of July to Labor Day That doesn t match the need when weather change has made it hotter from May into late September if we re lucky That s where the non-profit space must step up to fill the gap At Variety Boys Girls Club of Queens we ve sought to do our part by offering different swim programs throughout the year These lessons come at various levels based on children s familiarity with the water their age and other factors Apart from just lessons we provide free access to multiple of the students in our operation Our mission is to ensure the children who grow up in the Queensbridge Ravenswood Astoria and Woodside Houses have a healthy relationship with the water that surrounds them We along with the arrangement of other swim programs throughout the city have done our part to reverse this trend In multiple cases we have worked together to ensure this generation is the last to not have a safe relationship with the miles of coastline that make up New York City This kind of commitment is why Variety Boys Girls Club of Queens has made swimming an essential part of our plans for the future Our hope is to break ground later this year on a new million facility that will deliver the first planetarium to Queens along with new housing a school and a state-of-the-art theater Our new aquatic center will be the crown jewel of this proposed project which will include a regulation-sized eight lane pool wading pool for youth beginning their swimming journey with their parents and wet locker rooms open year round This vision became closer to reality this spring thanks to a million allocation from State Sen Jessica Ramos who grew up using our existing pool This new facility will allow us to serve youth here in Queens giving each a chance for interaction with the aquatics center and potentially lifesaving swimming lessons As we continue to raise funds for this project we re also committed to expanding swimming programs right now because our children cannot wait We need to build on the existing capital commitments to build more populace pools as well as backing the nonprofit-owned ones that operate throughout the year With the weather getting warmer we all have a role to play Let s ensure the tragedies of last summer don t repeat themselves this year Costa Constantinides is the CEO of Variety Boys Girls Club of Queens and previously represented City Council District The post Opinion NYC Necessities a Serious Conversation About Swimming appeared first on City Limits