Where Did All the Lifeguards Go?

The Hell Gate Podcast

New York's beaches kicked off the summer season over the last month with plenty of wind, sun, nutcrackers, and an extremely limited number of lifeguards. As the Parks Department revealed earlier this spring, the City currently has roughly a third of the lifeguards needed to fully open the City's beaches and pools.

The lifeguard shortage isn't new—the City struggled last year to hire enough lifeguards before the summer season, waiting months to take action and raise pay to entice the part-time employees to get back in the tower.

Knowing full well that this would be an issue heading into the summer, City Hall worked to make the lifeguard test easier and less opaque, and redoubled outreach efforts to high schools to get people into training programs. But the new push only yielded 200 new lifeguards, and just 280 returning lifeguards.

So what's standing in the way of the city hiring lifeguards? Is it part of a national phenomenon, or is this way more of a local issue? While New York City's Park Department, which runs many of its beaches, is way below its hiring goals—adjacent beaches, run by the National Parks Service, or the state, are doing just fine—and don't plan on closing any stretches. So what gives? Are we just going to live with limited pool hours and closed beaches forever?

Hell Gate went to the Rockaways to find out.

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