City residents prepare for last weekend of swimming at public pools and beaches

On Friday afternoon, people like Yasmina Obono, from the Bronx, were out at Coney Island trying to savor every last moment.

Greg Thompson

Sep 6, 2024, 10:00 PM

Updated 31 days ago

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It's another sign that summer is coming to an end, as the last weekend that swimming is allowed at New York City pools and beaches is quickly approaching.
On Friday afternoon, people like Yasmina Obono, from the Bronx, were out at Coney Island trying to savor every last moment.
"Today, the water is so good! I think this is the best day," said Obono.
If there's another day like this after Sunday though, public pools will no longer be open. At beaches, there will no longer be any lifeguards on duty and the red no swimming flags will be up everywhere.
Despite that, Emmanuel Aroche, from Harlem, says he still plans to come to the beach.
"I won't be over there you know, obviously in the water," he said. "But I'll be around here - the beach, the sand."
Bay Ridge resident Brooke Splicer says regardless of lifeguards on duty at the beach, "if you want to swim, you swim. Last October, we were swimming."
Doing so is risky.
The New York City Parks Department says that of the five drownings that were at beaches they run this summer, only one happened while lifeguards were on duty.
Aroche seemed unconcerned by that though, brushing it off as "just people not knowing their capabilities you know, people pushing their limits."
Others, like Dale Duane, from Yonkers, are taking the risk more seriously.
"I'm not going to go in if there aren't any lifeguards. Something could happen, and I have that much of an imagination - I don't want to tempt fate," says Duane.
Still most people, like Splicer, told News 12 they plan to keep swimming.
"I don't do anything dangerous," she said. "So, I'm pretty confident that I'll be OK."
Obono agreed, because "for me, I know how to swim, so I don't have a problem."
But she might have company. The Parks Department says they plan to have patrol officers at the beaches from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day through the middle of October, getting people out of the water.