Susan Stark wrote about her experiences on New York City beaches and was abhorred at the "beach gestapo," also known as the park personnel. The bully and intimidate beachgoers with ridiculous policies where you can't be on the sand after a certain time and only within a certain area within that certain time. Shouldn't the beach just be the beach, open to all with the exception of a warning when the city screws up and spills sewage up the river?
From NYC Indymedia:
Once, on Staten Island, I walked from the train to the beach, got in the water, and was promptly told by a passing personnel that I must, MUST be in a designated swimming area with lifeguards. I had to walk a half a mile north to this area, only to see that the area was only several yards long, and was crammed with noisy people and their kids. I like my beach experience quiet, so I walked as far away from the crowd as possible, while still in range of the lifeguards. I should not have had to do all of that, because a simple sign saying "NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY, SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK" would have sufficed in most places. Not here, apparently.
The Beach Gestapo also goes around at 6pm sharp to tell everyone to get out of the water because the beach is closing. Shocking. I never heard of that practice until I moved here.
There are very few personnel at Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn telling folks to leave the water "immediately, or else", but the last time I was there, there were signs on the bathroom doors telling people that they cannot use the bathroom to change clothes. This would've made sense if the city provided a place to change clothes, but there wasn't a building in sight where you could do that. I changed clothes in the bathroom anyway, and so did everyone else. A nice bit of psychological warfare, if you ask me.
This looks like a bad case of overzealousness by the parks department. Their policies definitely need heavy review. It is nice that the city wants to keep us safe from the water and ourselves. But there is a line when it comes to responsibility for the life of a New Yorker on the sand and the city crossed over by leaps and bounds.
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