S.W.I.M. Coalition

New Sustainability Director Selected, via Gotham Gazette:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that David Bragdon will take the reins as the city’s new sustainability czar.

Bragdon, who was most recently the president of the Portland, Oregon Metro Council, replaces Rohit T. Aggarwala, who helped spearhead the administration’s PlaNYC 2030 sustainability agenda. Aggarwala had been hailed as a chief architect of the administration’s environmental policy, and his departure in April threw much of the 127 PlaNYC proposals up in the air.

Bragdon, however, appears to have a decade of experience in the sustainability area.

At the Metro Council, he coordinated the region’s land use and transportation planning. As part of his role there, Bragdon attempted to plan how the Portland area would handle a million more residents in the next 20 years.

Keep reading…

S.W.I.M. Steering Committee member Shino Tanikawa sends along these photos from today’s public hearing regarding HPD/Parks’ proposed new rules that will govern many of our city’s community gardens. The hearing is well attended and gardeners from all over the city have come to voice their concerns that community garden protections are not weakened.

New York City Community Gardening Coalition offers a concise summary of the issue, and all related documents for your perusal. The online form for submitting comments is still active if you were not able to make the rally and hearing today.

S.W.I.M. Coalition will submit comments that urge community gardens be afforded the same if not stronger protection in the new agreement.  We know community gardens  as places of experimentation and creativity, incubators of stewardship and civic engagement, and an important part of Green Infrastructure.

The Water Resources Group created the map below to show the distribution of rainwater harvesting systems such as rain barrels and cisterns in community gardens across the city. Water Resources Group began coordinating rainwater harvesting systems with gardens as a source for irrigation water back in the drought stricken summer of 2001. People like Lenny Labrizzi and Lars Chellberg have been working out the kinks in these types of systems since long before PlaNYC or even the term Green Infrastructure. I think we were calling them BMPs or something back then…this is a great reminder that community gardens are places where people with great ideas are free to try them out. Let’s keep it that way!

At MWA’s City of Water Day, you may have been asked by a S.W.I.M. Coalition member or two to sign our petition demanding that New York City join the ranks of Baltimore and Philadelphia, by setting a firm goal of swimmable/fishable waterways and seeking to get there with Green Infrastructure.

The petition reads:

We, the undersigned, are residents of (or visitors to) New York City who deserve local water quality that meets the federal Clean Water Act’s “fishable/swimmable” goal and would provide a full spectrum of recreational and economic opportunities in/on our marine environment.  Although our harbor is much cleaner than it used to be, raw sewage and polluted urban runoff still frequently make it unsafe to touch the water in our rivers, bays, and creeks.  In a typical year, 27 billion gallons of untreated human sewage mixed with polluted runoff are dumped into local waterways in all five boroughs through Combined Sewer Overflow.

We call on New York City, New York State, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt enforceable plans that manage stormwater in NYC with Green Infrastructure. By creating a verdant, permeable city, we utilize stormwater as a resource, not a waste! Green Infrastructure will keep our waterways clean, cool and clean the air, and create a healthier place for people to live, work, recreate and visit.

We, the undersigned, demand “swimmable and fishable” waterways.

If you missed us there, or wished you could pass the petition on to a few friends, today is your lucky day!  SIGN THE S.W.I.M. COALITION’S PETITION FOR SWIMMABLE/FISHABLE WATERS ONLINE HERE!

If you would like to carry a hard copy of this petition at your next event, you can download a pdf of it HERE. Contact swimmablenyc@gmail.com for instructions on returning petition pages. Thank you!

This weekend, two teens drowned in an informal swimming spot on the Bronx River, sparking recent media coverage of “illegal swimming”.  This tragedy has touched the hearts of many among the S.W.I.M. membership, especially those of us working on the Bronx River and with young people. Our condolences go out to the families involved.

READ NY1 Coverage: Bronx teen David Luccioni died while trying to save Crystal Reyes, 15, from drowning in Bronx River

A WNYC report noted that although summer just began just a couple of weeks ago, already three young New Yorkers between the ages of 12 and 20 have drowned to death in area beaches and in the Harlem River.  Their reporting has explored how preventable drowning deaths can disproportionately impact communities of color in New York City.

READ WNYC Coverage: Survey Finds Blacks and Latinos Less Likely to Swim

It seems, however, that local swimming holes prove irresistible on hot summer days.  Even in the days since the drownings, locals continue to access the swimming hole as a cooling spot on these dog days of summer with temperatures topping 90F consistently for weeks.

READ Daily News Coverage: Bronx River swimming spot hard to resist, even after double drowning

As we continue to do our work to make sure that the water quality of local waterways is safe for contact, this incident brings broader issues of public safety front and center. We encourage everyone to learn to swim in a pool before taking to the open water anywhere, and to swim in locations where there is a lifeguard present. We have collected a few resources for safe swimming below.

Learn to Swim, a free instructional program that runs at New York City’s public outdoor pools is offered for young people through NYC Parks & Recreation, City Parks Foundation and the American Red Cross.

Speaking of the American Red Cross, they train lifeguards and help with job placement.

New York Harbor School is a local HS that provides a college-preparatory education built upon New York City’s maritime experience…students learn a wide array of on-water skills including swimming and sailing.

Swim Free is a new org, supported by open water swimming group NYC SWIM, that will be offering learn-to-swim programs, lifeguard training this Fall.

Rocking the Boat provides youth programming of boat building, on-water skills, ecology and terrain of the Bronx River and surrounding estuary.

Please add (in the comments section) any additional resources that we have not mentioned here that might help young people handle themselves safely on the water, and we will update the body of the post.  Have a safe summer everyone.