Janet Fash is the author, with Clio Chang, of “Lifeguard: A Love Story.”
You might not think it, but New York City is a beach town. Every summer, over a million people descend on Rockaway Beach via subway, ferry and buses to enjoy its seven miles of ocean.
But when beachgoers arrive, they are faced with a confusing spread. One block of beach might be closed, while the next block is open — yet people sprawl across both. On open beaches, the Parks Department has crowded more lifeguard chairs than necessary, while closed beaches have none. The confusion can lead to drownings — a 16-year-old girl whose friends said they didn’t know that the beach was closed; an 18-year old who died in the weeks before beaches opened for the season.
In recent years, the city has pointed to covid-era lifeguard shortages and made commendable efforts to increase staffing. But the problems run deeper.
For nearly two decades, the roles of citywide lifeguard coordinator and president of the city’s lifeguard supervisors’ union were held by one man, Peter Stein. During my time as a chief lifeguard, I watched as Stein abused his privileges and retaliated against those who opposed him, all while the Parks Department turned a blind eye. Last year, Stein finally retired — and the city has a chance to fix what has gone wrong.
In the summer of 1979, I started as a lifeguard at Rockaway. Around that time, the Parks Department created the position of citywide lifeguard coordinator, who would oversee day-to-day operations. By the early ’80s, Peter Stein had taken on the role — and another: president of the local union for lifeguard supervisors.
For the next four decades I worked as a chief lifeguard, the first woman to hold the role in New York City. I saw Stein give out high-paying jobs to his friends, even if they were not qualified, and take away jobs from those who spoke out against him. Union elections were a sham, with Stein intimidating members into voting how he wanted and selectively applying rules to deem insurgent candidates ineligible to run. Union leaders allied with Stein stopped holding meetings regularly for rank-and-file members. Provisions were entered into the union contract without members having a say.
There was no one lifeguards could complain to, because our boss was also supposed to represent us in union grievances. Stein stepped down from his role as lifeguard coordinator in 1997, but the change did not reinstate a genuine separation of powers, because his successor, Richard Sher, consulted closely with him.
As a result, New York City’s beaches became less safe. Decision-making about public beaches became concentrated in the hands of a few people. Over the decades, many lifeguards have spoken out against the corruption, myself included. But many of those same people then suddenly failed the swim test or eye exam.
Stein himself has rarely addressed these allegations and declined an interview with the New York City Investigation Department in 2021. In 2008, he denied my claims vigorously in a New York Times interview.
Last year, Stein retired amid a trial investigating his failure to run a democratic union. (The New York Post reported this week he is reaping a hefty pension.) Still, much of the system that allowed Stein’s dual control still exists, and his cronies still occupy the top lifeguarding posts. Many of these issues, such as ensuring transparent elections, fall to the parent union to fix. The union could do much more to keep the public safe if it were run by the lifeguards actually manning the city’s beaches and pools. But with a new mayor in office, the Parks Department also has the opportunity for a major overhaul.
The city’s lifeguarding program should be run according to national standards. Lifeguards at Rockaway Beach should complete extensive training in the ocean, not just pools, to make sure they are equipped for conditions such as rip currents. The city could conduct ocean trainings the week before Memorial Day, when beaches open for the season. And to avoid staff shortages, the department could take a leaf from places such as California and D.C. by founding a junior lifeguard program that prepares preteens to enter the corps.
To avoid further abuses, the timed swim test to qualify for the corps must be transparent. Test-takers were told their times for the first time in 2023, after years of learning only whether they passed or failed.
The union has proved obstinate to change — in 2025, it filed a complaint because the Parks Department decided to allow a doctor’s vision test as proof of a candidate’s eyesight. But many drownings could be averted with better systems in place.
In the past, the Parks Department has dealt with lifeguard issues as if they were mosquitoes — things that crop up every summer that the department tries to swat away until the season ends. But the beach-going public deserves more, and so do New York’s Wettest.
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