Unfortunately, Craig Greenman’s experiences attempting to swim at a lakefront beach [August 13] are similar to my own. He quoted a lifeguard as saying, “If you want to swim, go to a Park District lap pool. The lake’s not for swimming, it’s for playing.” I think this attitude is the crux of the problem. This idea has been conveyed to me repeatedly by lifeguards at North Avenue Beach since the early 80s.
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I attended one meeting and have had correspondence with Joe Pecoraro, head of beaches and pools, about this. At the meeting Pecoraro told everyone there that adults are allowed to swim in chest-deep water whenever the beaches are open for swimming. In the summer of 1992 I wrote to the Park District, “The ‘adults can swim in chest-deep water’ rule may be the best-kept secret in Chicago.” I wrote this because several people told me they stopped going to the beach because the lifeguards kept them in knee-deep water. When I told them about the chest-high rule, they were amazed. Also, I was often told to move in while swimming (well within the rule), and when I mentioned the rule to the lifeguard, the lifeguard didn’t know about it. I was sometimes told that North Avenue Beach “isn’t a swimming beach.” Pecoraro responded to my letter, “The chest-deep swimming rules at our bathing beaches have been in effect since I started as a lifeguard, and every guard is instructed and trained in its enforcement.”
I shouldn’t have to point out how embarrassing it was to have to get permission to swim by invading the lifeguards’ space (as I was told to do). Also, it felt like a personal favor to me rather than the enforcement of a policy that is supposed to apply to everyone.
