Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday floated a proposal to build more pools and invest in more training for lifeguards, who have been in short supply in New York’s sweltering recent summers.
The drowning deaths of children in city pools have been a deepening problem in New York City, and potent heat spells have heightened many New Yorkers’ desire to cool off at public pools.
Hochul’s office said her blueprint is New York’s largest investment in municipal swimming pools since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal nine decades ago (Roosevelt, a one-time New York governor, also built a pool at the Executive Mansion in Albany.).
Folded into Hochul’s plan, she said, is a $60 million investment in a city-state collaboration to build floating pools in New York waterways. The city plans to build a floating, water-filtering pool in the East River, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The pool is to open to the public next year, according to Mayor Adams’ office. It was unclear where exactly the pool would be located, but renderings show it in multiple East River locations, including two different possible spots by Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, described swimming as one of her “greatest pleasures.”
“I love it,” Hochul said in a news conference at a Harlem community center. “I want every person to love it. I want every child to have access to this. And I want to keep kids alive.”
Overall, Hochul’s proposal includes $150 million in grant money for 10 new public swimming pools in high-need areas across the state.
The governor’s proposal is an extension of her long-running efforts to bolster the state’s lifeguard ranks, and it came in a series of policy priorities for 2024 she has outlined ahead of a major address scheduled for next week.
Over the last two years, Hochul has lowered the minimum age for some lifeguards to 15, and has raised wages for lifeguards at state facilities, hoping to attract more lifeguards to watch over the state’s children at pool time.
Drowning is the most common cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. In 2020, some 230 New Yorkers died by drowning, Hochul said.
“It’s every parent’s nightmare,” the governor said. “But here’s the challenge: the pain is not shared equally among the population. Low-income communities, communities of color have suffered decades of disinvestment in swimming facilities.”