"In Between Brooklyn & Queens: Make Room for Water"
By Jill Parshley-Cardillo
This month, I'll be taking you for backstrokes down memory lane, introducing you to new places to swim and sunbathe in BROOKLYN & QUEENS. Explore waters closer to the city, you'll be surprised at their quaint character, and mosaic of local foods and cultures.
Mists of water showered my mother's sunkissed smile from beneath the water slide at Coney Island's former amusement park, Astroland. It was 2007 and word on the street was that it would be closing down. Flocks of us native New Yorkers flew there to take one "last ride" on the Cyclone, open since 1927. Mom watched us from below; not allowed to take her oxygen tank up, but if she could, she would. We sat on the sand eating corndogs and salty crinkle fries, recalling how she and my late father took me and my sister to NY beaches throughout our childhood. Two months later she passed away from lung cancer. Coney Island was a place of solace for her and her family at one point, before the trauma; her dad, a WWII veteran passed from a heart attack, her mother sick, permanently hospitalized, and she was sent with her sister to a convent orphanage. Before all of that, together, they made room for water. It ebbs and flows, stretching out our flaws and fears, until they disappear.
The NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation provides FREE public beaches and pools, open Memorial Day, Mon.5/28 through Labor Day, Mon. 9/03. Beaches have lifeguards on duty 10am-6pm daily and pools are open 11am - 7pm including a break for pool cleaning from 3 - 4pm.
BROOKLYN:
Coney Island Beach (718) 946-1350 (FYI 6/16/18 Mermaid Parade!)
Brighton Beach (718) 946-1350
Manhattan Beach (718) 946-1373
Betsy Head Pool (718) 257-1635/6
Bushwick Pool (718) 452-2116
McCarren Park Pool (Call 311)
Sunset Park Pool (718) 972-2180
Kosciuszko Pool (718) 622-5271
Red Hook Pool (718) 722-3211
Howard Pool (718) 385-1023
Douglas&DeGraw Pool (718) 625-3268
Commodore Barry Pool (718) 243-2593
QUEENS:
Astoria Pool (718) 626-8620 (FYI Astoria Park carnival in June! See photo.)
Fort Totten Pool (718) 224-4031
Fisher Pool (718) 779-8356
Liberty Pool (718) 657-4995
Rockaway Beach (718) 318-4000
NYC public parks are equipped with dispensers filled with broad-spectrum SPF 50 sunscreen now, sponsored by the American Academy of Dermatology's SPOT Skin Cancer (TM) program. A sign of the times since the ozone layer is slowly deteriorating resulting from green house gases and chemical filled pollution. Protect your skin, it's the largest organ we have! According to the American Cancer Society, the rates of malignant melanoma skin cancer have been rising for the last 30 years, and an estimated 9,320 people are expected to die from it in the U.S. in 2018. My father was diagnosed in the 1980's when he was only 37. Before he passed, he gave me the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, inspiring me to soar high, and he taught me how to make pens out of seagull's feathers we found on the beach. Spending quality time in the sun? Lather up. I'm grateful to see healthy preventative measures taking place in our city today.
Water has a timeless effect and beaches are so durable. After Superstorm Sandy, I took my after-school students on a trip to Rockaway Beach, where we volunteered. The land was disheveled, houses moldy and crushed, storefronts boarded up, food and water scarce, except for the donation tents set up. I couldn't believe it was once where I took my first rollercoaster ride, by my father's side, at Rockaways' Playland, open from 1902 to 1987. Despite natural disasters, beaches still stand strong.
4 highlights:
1) Rockaway Beach & Boardwalk- Showcases live music, legal surfing at Beach Streets 68-71, 87-92, & 110-111, vegan tacos, fresh fruit smoothies, a dance floor, sandbag games, kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding at Beach Streets 32 & 57, and a 5 mile long wheelchair accessible boardwalk open from 6am - 10pm.
2) McCarren Park Pool- Boasts a capacity for 1,500 swimmers, features a live music performance venue, a year round recreation center, and the McCarren Skatepark, designed by local and professional skateboarders.
3) In Park Slope, BROOKLYN at Prospect Park's Audubon Center's Boathouse, there's a FREE Basic Canoeing class on Sunday MAY 13th, from 11am-12:30pm
4) At the Hallets Cove launch site in Astoria/Long Island City QUEENS, visit the nonprofit all-volunteer group, LIC Boathouse, leading kayak rides at the northern end of Socrates Sculpture Park for FREE. They are key members of the Newtown Creek Alliance, advocating for cleaner water and community access.(www.licboathouse.org) In general, we have a total of 11 kayak & canoe launch sites in QUEENS, 13 in BROOKLYN, and a map to follow which connects 160 sq. miles of rivers, bays, creeks, inlets and ocean in the five boroughs!
Memorial Day is a national holiday which honors all those who died serving the U.S military, this year it falls on May 28th. There will be events and parades throughout NY, on Long Island, and in between Brooklyn & Queens to commemorate our fallen soldiers. When you leave the beaches and pools after the sunset, treading back on crowded trains and buses, or bumper to bumper in traffic, remember in those moments to go back and visit sooner rather than later; many fought and died for our freedom to enjoy these beautiful lands and waters which bring us bliss, time and time again, when all we have to do is show up.
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