Results tagged “beach”

Look a WCBS 2's Doppler map (pictured) —it looks like today really will be beautiful! And the city's beaches are only open for through Labor Day, so if you want your local surf and sun in, go! The summer's crummy weather ruined summer beachgoing, thanks to lots of rain, Hurricane Bill and Tropical Depression Danny. One Rockaway beachgoer told the Post yesterday, "I feel like summer is just beginning, and now it's over. I'm kind of upset about it. When it has been sunny recently, it's been too humid to sit outside and, before that, it was cold and wet. Now we have perfect beach weather at last -- and the beaches are about to be closed."

Lifeguards, sharks, outlaw swimmers... are there any other beach stories one can squeeze out of summer? Yep! The Daily News has published a piece about sand scavengers! One of their reporters recently rented a metal detector and searched for treasure on Coney Island. The rental alone costs $37.95 a day plus $25 for a sifter, and the employee at the rental company told her that she'd likely only find nickels and crushed cans! Indeed, she only dug up $2.07 in beach booty—so much for that bailout (pailout?).

Wednesday night a few Russian women were ticketed $250 a piece for swimming past 6 p.m. at Brighton Beach. The Parks security allegedly threatened to jail them and check up on their immigration statuses. While the Parks Dept. told us that "New York State law does not allow you to swim at your own risk," the swimmers (and eyewitnesses) say that the lifeguards never alerted them that the beach was closing, and simply clocked out without getting anyone out of the water.

Move over, Canada geese. The New York Post has a new public enemy in its sights—the city's 1300 lifeguards. This weekend the paper caught a shot of one of the Parks Department employees in Coney Island off his chair (but seemingly on-duty) coming down to the sand and "canoodling with a lovely." The picture captures his floatation device going unused as his flirtation device works its magic. The most recent indiscretion comes on the heels of a week in which the Post caught lifeguards with iPods on and drinking beer in their tower after hours. Catching the young employees acting so irresponsibly on the job is not just raising the tabloid's ire; they also talk to Chris Bewster, president of the US Lifesaving Association. He says, "It's indicative of very poor management of these beaches...What is extraordinary about the pictures that are coming out of New York is that they do it in front of everybody else. It suggests they don't fear that, if they're observed, they will be disciplined." The rate of swimmers to die on NYC lifeguards' watch hovers around 3x greater than the national average.

A day after a Bronx teenager drowned after getting caught in a Rockaway riptide, the Parks Department is suspending a lifeguard who was photographed wearing his iPod headphones while working at a nearby beach. Mayor Bloomberg was quick to lash out at the unnamed city employee, telling reporters, "He certainly wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing." The mayor also urged anyone on the beaches who spots something similar to call 311. Beachgoers in Rockaway told the Post headphones on the lifeguards who start out making $13.50 an hour are just the tip of the iceberg—one resident said, "Half the time, they're chatting with people. They're listening to music. They're on their cellphones. They're texting with people." The lifeguard in the photo could be fired if he has been on the job for less than a year; it'll at least be a consideration after a hearing if he's been around longer. A Parks Department spokesman said, "This is an unacceptable violation of our regulations, which is not representative of the dedication and diligence displayed by the vast majority of our over 1,300 lifeguards."

No fancy-schmancy tally counters here: many of the supervisors don't even use pen and paper to take census; they just "estimate" mentally and log the numbers later. As Deputy Parks Commissioner Liam Kavanagh explains, "Crowd estimates are notoriously difficult to do well or accurately...Beaches in particular pose a challenge because beaches are pretty dynamic places. People are flowing in and out all the time."

While the Parks Department's solution to the city's garbage is a giant Dumpster amongst the trees, the same thing can't quite help our water. The Daily News has a report card on our beaches, and of the 13 rated in the annual "Testing the Water" guide... things aren't looking so good.

Summer is here, time for some scaremongering! Newsday delivers the first dose in what is likely a season full of over-the-top warnings. The latest casts a dark shadow on sand, following a study by the Environmental Protection Agency who "found those who dig in the sand have an increased chance of gastrointestinal problems, such as diarrhea, due to fecal matter in the sand." Sand castle builders and those who enjoy getting buried in the sand are at a greater risk (seriously, it says that). Eh, a little gastrointestinal illness isn't a bad trade off for sculpting a sweet sand castle... but don't be fooled, that's not all you'll catch, you can also come down with upper respiratory illnesses, rash, eye ailments, earaches and infected cuts. The paper also injects this floating fact into the article for us locals, "Long Island has several outfall pipes that discharge to water near bathing beaches." Yeah, that's sewage overflow. So enjoy the beach this weekend everyone, and don't forget this year's hottest accessory (pictured).

The Press of Atlantic City reports that even though medical waste washed up along miles of beach (between Barnegat Light to Surf City) on Sunday afternoon, Long Beach health officials didn't close beaches—or confirm it until yesterday. Long Beach Island Health Department director Tim Hilferty said issuing a press release "didn't even cross my mind. I felt comfortable that there was no risk at all to the public," given that it was cleaned up by Monday morning and no more waste was found. According to Hilferty, "the debris included syringes, wood, plastic, bottle caps, cell phone cases, ribbons and balloons." However one beachgoer—a nurse—tells the Press that "she saw syringes, catheters, butterfly catheters, medical tubing, blood test tubes, urine specimen bottles, condoms, fecal bags and hazardous waste bags," emphasizing, "There was so much medical waste everywhere you couldn't walk without stepping in it." Barnegat Light Mayor Kirk Larson feels comfortable with the response, adding, "We've only had three sunny days. What do you want me to do, close the beaches? I didn't get anything from the health department to close the beaches."

It's shark season! The first reported spotting of the summer happened at Jones Beach yesterday, as beach-goers trying to cool down spotted a 4 or 5-foot long shark in the bathing area (the shark was noticeably smaller than the recent one spotted with surfers in Florida).

                   

By all accounts, it seems like Saturday's Mermaid Parade was a great deal of fun, enjoying perfect weather and drawing large crowds. One can only hope that the Coney Island tradition dating back to 1903 remains as popular in coming years. Thanks to everyone who tagged and/or submitted their photos "gothamist."

Ugh: A Lake Beach in Southold, Long Island is closed due to "high levels of bacteria caused by waterfowl droppings and storm-water runoff." Luckily no one has reported any illnesses. It's unclear if officials will require the services of the Geese Police.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre, also known as "Kristen," the high-class prostitute former governor Eliot Spitzer visited on Valentine's Day eve, strutted her considerable stuff at a New Jersey beach yesterday and there was a photographer on the scene to provide enough photos for the Daily News to give us this gallery.

A 40-year-old woman was fatally struck and dragged by a red Mercedes that hit her while she was crossing Brighton Beach Avenue yesterday afternoon. The car's driver, 27-year-old Ronald Suriano, was arrested for drug possession (cops found drugs in his car).

State senator Carl Kruger, an outspoken critic of Mayor Bloomberg’s plans for Coney Island, is now accusing the city of “extorting” $68,000 from the owner of Tatiana Restaurant and Nightclub, a popular Russian nightspot on the Brighton Beach boardwalk. Tatiana Varzar lost her restaurant in a massive fire in 2003 that authorities believe was caused by homeless people living under the boardwalk.