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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we will step outside and head to New York City's parks, pools, and beaches as we approach another extremely hot day with temperatures set to hit the mid-90s. I'm sure many of you are considering where you're going to go to stay cool if you don't just stay home in the air conditioning, if you have air conditioning. Will you take the train down to Coney Island or out to the Rockaways and smell the salt-watery air, or perhaps you'll stay in the neighborhood and head to your local public pool? Maybe just a walk amongst the trees will offer you enough shade for comfort.

Whatever your plans, I bet you're hoping for short lines, enough lifeguards to keep you safe and clean facilities. Joining us now is the person responsible for all those things. She is Sue Donoghue, commissioner of the New York City Parks Department. Commissioner Donoghue, thanks very much for coming on. Welcome to WNYC today.

Sue Donoghue: Thank you, Brian. I'm so happy to be here.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to expand on what I just casually said in the intro and just tell people what some of the options are in the parks today, maybe even some things they may not think about right away when we're getting a sweltering day like this?

Sue Donoghue: Thank you, Brian. Absolutely. You're so right. When we have temperatures like we've had over the last couple weeks, our parks and open spaces are so vital to people's health and wellbeing and the livability of the city. You mentioned, we have 14 miles of beaches, 50 public pools, 800 spray showers, 5 million trees to keep us cool. We have an incredible park system that we know is vital to New Yorkers and to the livability of this city. We do work hard every day to make sure that park system is clean and safe and green and resilient for people and we encourage people to get out and enjoy it.

Brian Lehrer: Well, on it being safe, we've all been talking about the lifeguard shortage. I know that you're concerned about that too. How many lifeguards are there? How is your department looking to fill those empty chairs?

Sue Donoghue: Yes, absolutely, Brian. You're right, we have been dealing with a national lifeguard shortage across the country over the last few years. It is something that New York City Parks has been laser-focused on, is expanding that number of lifeguards. I'm really pleased to say that we have good news on that front. We have surpassed our total from last year. We currently have around 900 lifeguards and will continue to certify more.

It's something that we started working on last year. As soon as the beach and pool season ended, we were focused on recruitment this past fall and winter. We did a whole lot of work expanding testing and training sites. We have a terrific partnership that we've built with DOE to hold exams at their sites and recruit directly. A whole lot of really good work happening. We're seeing the benefits of that. We anticipate we'll continue to see the benefits from that work.

Brian Lehrer: Mayor Adams, last week, declined to consider extending the hours of lifeguards after the two pairs of drownings, four people in total in two separate incidents, one in Coney Island, one in the Rockaways. Those four drownings took place shortly after the lifeguards went off duty. Do you agree with opposition, or would you urge the mayor to extend the hours?

Sue Donoghue: Brian, these situations obviously are so tragic for everybody involved, for all New Yorkers. They're also a reminder of the importance of not going in the water after hours when there are not lifeguards on duty. Our lifeguards spend long hours in the hot sun surveilling thousands of people a day, and their job is extremely susceptible to exhaustion and fatigue, even more so in the beaches than at pools. We're concerned about the health and safety of all New Yorkers, including our lifeguards. We don't want to put undue stress on them that would inhibit their ability to properly surveil the beaches and keep beachgoers safe.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls for New York City Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue, or texts. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Let's take one right away. Gina in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello, Gina.

Gina: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Commissioner, I live in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, an area of Flatbush, that is populated by 100-plus-year-old trees that are falling. Many are falling and they are so big that in the past several years, they killed two people on Ditmas Avenue and between East 18th and East 19th Street. One fell just in front of my house last week, and then another fell on East 19th Street. These pose huge risks to passersby, neighbors. They have fallen on cars in the past.

The Parks Department has a service, I know, but I would like the Parks Department to send inspectors to evaluate these trees. You can only report one tree at a time, which I've done. I've requested and I am requesting you to please send experts down to our neighborhood so nobody's life is lost again by these falling trees. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Gina. Commissioner, I bet you get calls like that all the time.

Sue Donoghue: We do, Brian. Absolutely. Gina, thank you for your call and your concern. It's something that we are keenly focused on at the Parks Department and we have an extensive tree risk management program. We do send inspectors out to look at and assess our trees. We also have contracts in place for tree pruning that is on a specific cycle. It is an area of focus, absolutely, for us. We do rely on New Yorkers. We respond to 311 calls, but we do, absolutely, have inspectors out there and in place that are looking at and maintaining. We have 680,000 street trees across the city, another 3 million in parks. It is an enormous task but one we are absolutely focused on.

Brian Lehrer: Can you promise her a look-see at that location? Should we take her contact information for your office?

Sue Donoghue: Absolutely, Brian. We'd appreciate that and we'd be happy to follow up.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Got it. My producer just said, "Got it." I see Gina is still on the phone, so we're going to get that contact info and make that match. Joseph in Queens, you are on WNYC. Hello.

Joseph: Hey, Brian. I just wanted to comment on the fact that the pools seem to be really really crowded. Me and my family have been trying to get into the public pools for the past two or three weeks and whenever we go, there's huge lines. I don't know if that's because of the lifeguard shortage or whatever that's happening with that, but I don't remember it being this crowded. Go ahead.

Brian Lehrer: Different from past summers, you're saying, Joseph?

Joseph: Yes. Especially the Astoria Pool. I've always been able to get into that pool and for some reason this year, for the past couple of weeks, I don't know if it's the advertising that's happening, the outreach that's been going on that so many people are going, or maybe more people are going due to the migrant crisis, I'm not sure, but I have not been able to get in. I just wanted to comment on that.

Brian Lehrer: Commissioner, talk to Joseph and give us the big picture. Are the lines longer, the access more restricted at pools this year because of demand?

Sue Donoghue: There is certainly a huge amount of demand with this ongoing heat wave. We are certainly seeing more demand at our pools and our beaches. I think Astoria Pool, that you mentioned, it was closed last year. We did an extensive renovation. We put almost $20 million investment into that pool. It is absolutely beautiful. It's where we did the opening was at Astoria this year. It has gotten a lot of attention. It's a beautiful pool for New Yorkers to enjoy. People are going. They're out there in droves. They are attending, which is great. That's what we want to see. We want to make sure that when people are there, they're there safely.

We do have capacity restrictions at the pools, and Astoria is one that has been extremely popular, one, because it wasn't open last year, it's a huge pool. It's the biggest pool in our system, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's had a big investment and it's definitely drawing more people.

Brian Lehrer: The caller mentioned the migrant crisis as one possible reason that the pools are more crowded. We have another caller who I'm not going to take for time, but I will acknowledge that caller saying explicitly, "Isn't this because of the migrant crisis?" How much can you attribute crowding at the Astoria Pool or anywhere else to the number of new New Yorkers?

Sue Donoghue: Brian, our pools are free and open to everyone, and we welcome all New Yorkers to come and enjoy them. There's no way we could say or attribute it specifically to migrants. I think that our people know about our public pools. They're absolutely beautiful, well-maintained facilities, and in this heat, they are very much what New Yorkers are looking towards to cool off.

Over the 4th of July weekend alone, we had over 800,000 people at our beaches and over 100,000 people at our pools. We consistently see in the summers extensive use of our public facilities. They're free and open to everyone, so I don't think it's attributable to migrants. I think it's just people know that there are beautiful facilities to cool off. Astoria has always been really a popular one. As I said, it's the biggest in our system, over a million gallons of water. It's a beautiful facility, and it wasn't open last year. I think that there's just a lot of New Yorkers who are interested to visit, want to go there and should, because it's absolutely beautiful with the investments the city has made.

Brian Lehrer: Also on the pools, I know you and Mayor Adams launched Let's Swim NYC to improve public pools with a $1 billion capital investment. There's also the $3.2 billion initiative that your department unveiled just the other day called Vital Parks for All. I know you want to talk about that, but at the same time, it's been in the news that in this year's city budget, the Parks Department is projected to lose about $20 million in annual operating funding. How does that all fit together? The Parks Department is one of those whose cuts did not get restored like the libraries did.

Sue Donoghue: Thanks, Brian, [unintelligible 00:11:57] Again, you're right. We were so pleased to announce just this month our Let's Swim NYC initiative. Over $1 billion capital investment in our pools. It's the city's highest period of investment in swimming infrastructure, really since the 1970s. It's bringing needed funding to 39 pools across the system. It is very much part of our Vital Parks initiative that is really about helping New Yorkers to understand what it means to be part of a Vital Parks system, what the city's investment is in our parks, to make sure that they're clean and safe and green and resilient and engaging New Yorkers.

We're providing a whole lot of information to New Yorkers so that they can be empowered and know what their communities have in their district, where the closest facilities are, and so that they can take advantage of those great facilities, and also, have information about where we're making investments, how we're targeting investments to areas where it's needed most, also to help us advocate for-- get community feedback. A big part of Vital Parks initiative is saying to New Yorkers, "Here's what we're doing, here's where we're targeting investment. Give us feedback. What would you like to see where we should be going?"

You're right, in terms of the city budget, that we had to make difficult decisions, absolutely, but the new adopted budget does ensure that parks does have new and additional resources. A critical part of that is an investment in our second shift program, $15 million city investment, so that the Parks Department can hire additional full-time maintenance and operation staff, 240 full-time workers to provide a second shift of cleaning in our park so that we know that where we need to target resources is when the parks are most busy. What the second shift does is it puts maintenance folks in our parks after hours on the weekends. That was an important part of the new budget for the Parks Department, as was a significant investment in our recreation center in Brownsville, $160 million capital investment in that facility that is so important to the community. Yes, difficult budget times, difficult decisions, but some really important investments for the New York City Parks Department.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a specific budget item call, I think, from Julia in Glendale, Queens. You're on WNYC. Hello, Julia.

Julia: Hello, Brian. Nice to hear you again. Thanks for your service. Hello, Commissioner, and thanks for your service. I'm a sculptor who's been commissioned by NYC Parks twice. I actually have a piece up now and I just wanted to hear your comment, if the budget for the art department at Parks will be going up or down based on the cuts. I wanted to let you know that it has been going down, the personnel allocated to distributing it has been going down. People work part-time, they're so stressed. There's nobody to help monitor safety. You guys, if you are running your own art department from Parks, which I believe you have a website, there's no program to really put something semi-permanent up.

I've removed my first piece after a year, which was doing great in a park in Brooklyn. It was a commission put together with a organization working against violence with teens that worked with me. It was really positive community project, and Parks put forward the budget back in 2017. I just remember digging up my piece after a year and children playing around me asking, "Why are you taking the art away?" There's never been something put back up in that spot. I visited a lot.

I would talk about my current piece. I have a piece up at Flushing Meadows Corona Park called Light Portal. It's going great. We're going to do a public event with poetry in September. If anyone wants to look it up, lightportalnyc.com.

Brian Lehrer: Julia, thank you very much. This will be your last response, Commissioner. Respond to Julia about art in the parks and the budget for that, and anything else you want to say in our last 30 seconds.

Sue Donoghue: Thank you, Brian. Julia, thank you for your grazing our public parks with your art. That's something that we value. We know it's so important and we have a robust program to ensure that different parks have access to all varieties of public art for communities to enjoy. We know that art and public art in our spaces is an incredibly important example of ways that we can enliven and introduce new elements in our park. Thank you for that.

We work really hard to make sure that we're commissioning pieces in all five boroughs that will be of interest to people. You're right. They're not permanent sculptures because one, we want to be able to have a wide range of different offerings and a wide range of different artists who can display in parks. We want to make sure that we are providing opportunities to a wide range of sculptors and artists. Permanent versus not permanent, there's a very different process to put a permanent monument in a park. By doing this and having it be just a year-long process, it ensures that we can have both diversity of art and artists in a number of our parks across the boroughs.

Brian Lehrer: New York City Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue, thank you very much for joining us today.

Sue Donoghue: Thank you, Brian. Great to be here.

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