Mayor Adams Makes a Splash With $1B Investment in City Pools

A major overhaul is coming for NYC public pools thanks to Mayor Adams’ new Let’s Swim NYC initiative, which will provide over $1 billion in capital investment toward building, improving, and protecting the city’s public pools over the next five years.

Adams announced the launch of the program on June 18 with the Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Sue Donoghue. This funding marks the city’s highest investment in swimming infrastructure since the 1970s, a testament to how overlooked this sector of public life has been. In the last several years, city pools have faced lifeguard shortages, Learn to Swim program cuts, and even indefinite closures. The Tony Dapolito Pool in Greenwich Village has been ‘closed for construction’ since 2019 with no end in sight.

Given the heat wave and the Adams administration’s creation of a Chief Public Realm Officer, this investment seems more appropriate than ever. The city is funding 39 pools, building two new indoor pools, and fully renovating three additional ones. Throughout the past year, the Let’s Swim NYC initiative also helped fund two state-of-the-art pools at the Harry S. Truman High School campus in the Bronx and updated seven pools across six city campuses.

The Adams administration hopes that the improvement of many school pools will ensure that students have access to modern aquatic facilities, as well as teach New Yorkers in general life-saving water skills. Department of Education Chancellor Banks said that these resources will promote physical fitness and a sense of community and pride within schools.

But this initiative is for everyone–not just students–as Mayor Adams was quick to clarify in a press release following the announcement.

“New York City’s pools and beaches are incredible places for New Yorkers to come together, learn to swim, and beat the heat—and as climate change makes heat waves like this week’s more common and more severe, the need for pools has never been greater,” said Adams.

While several pools have already been improved, the bulk of the funding will most likely appear in the coming years as renovations are rolled out. In Manhattan, both John Jay Pool on the Upper East Side and Sheltering Arms Pool in West Harlem will be remodeled and renovated. Hopefully, this huge investment will make up for the neglect that city pools, their programs, and their visitors have dealt with over the last few years.