Daily News from New York, New York • 50

DAILY FRIDAY, MAY 56, 1972 A A A X'X XVXVSv i ri; II 1 A -V -X X. X. -X. 2 yr beaches aire on ihhe ropes Memorial Day heralds the summer season, but city beaches aren't fully ready for the opening. At Coney Island (above left), a severe manpower shortage has delayed cleanup of winter's debris, while at Rockaway (above) storm erosion has undermined large sections of the boardwalk.

New Dorp Beach on Staten Island (below) reflects the pollution problem that plagues all area beaches. NEWS photos by: above left, Ed Molinar! above, Ed Clarity; below, Jim Carrett as ft he svminmiiimg season opemis By MICHAEL POUSNER August (Augie) Heckscher, the city's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Commissioner, is wont to describe his department Napoleonically. It is his "empire," his responsibilities "global," his employes an "army." Presently, Heckscher's army and its Long Island State Park Commission equivalent are girding for this weekend's friendly invasion of millions of New Yorkers who go down to the beaches in cars, trains, subways and bicycle. Normally, the parks armies are well-prepared to battle rout-In problems like litter to a standstill, even if they stop short of paraphrasing Churchill shall fight it on the beaches. We shall never But this year? Well first of all, Augie now com-mands "an inadequate army." Constant attrition has eroded the Parks Department permanent staff by a fourth.

At Coney Island, the figure is more like third. This has meant a tardiness in beach preparations, but fortunately new mechanized devices like the Scavenger, a sandsifting and aeriating tractor, and the motorized Litter Lift, which disposes of litter via rubber fingers, have taken up some of the slack. And the beaches themselves? Perhaps Heckscher sums the situation np best with a classic understatement: "This year each beach seems to have its own interesting aspects." That they do. Interesting and formidable. If this -mndown on area beach prospects seems more like a dirge, blame Mother Nature and pinch-purse legislative bodies before criticizing Augie and his understaffed army.

On Long Island's beaches, not tinder Heckscher's control, budget-cutting has rolled back the start of the swim season by three weeks, until June 17. Although parking lots and some concession stands will be open starting this weekend, there'll be no lifeguards on hand until the delayed opening date at the State Park beaches, including Jones Beach, Sunken dow, Robert Moses and Hecksher (the latter named for Augie's family, by the way). Which means you can get sand in your shoes this weekend, but dive at your own risk. When open, Long Island beaches are relatively less crowded and have relatively cleaner water than their city counterparts. Back in the city, Rockaway beach has a serious long-term erosion problem.

Don't look now, but the 7 -mile-long strand is being eaten away, the latest bite six feet deep in spots having been taken by a vicious Feb. 10 storm that left parks people muttering blasphemies about old Mother Nature. Parkway threatened In some areas now, high tide licks in under the boardwalk, whereas it used to stop about 30 feet out. Some stairs drop off into nothingness, and pilings from piers covered up over 50 years ago have been exposed. During storms, water seeping through the boardwalk threatens Shore Front Parkway, Rocka-ways main drag.

The Parks Department has had to close sections of the boardwalk, including the Playland area, which was seriously undermined. Visitors to Rockaway are urged to fan out and away from the eroded spots. Any lasting solution to Rocka way's erosion seems to lie in replenishing it with sand from other areas, but this, unfortunately, is a job requiring millions of dollars the city doesn't have. Still, if surfing is your thing, Rockaway is your best bet in the city. If one of the few beaches to boast enough surf.

It won't make you forget Malibu, but neither will Coney Island, which also has problems, the chief one being pollution. The final verdict isn't jn yet, but it looks as if the western- t. i 1 i i be dotted with green "Water polluted bathing not recom-mended" signs. Coney Island's location, near the mouth of New York harbor, places it perilously close to the millions of gallons of untreated sewage that daily pours into the Hudson and East Rivers from the lower half of Manhattan. Indeed, this sewage is responsible for the prospective cautions against swimming at the city's attractive Staten Island Beaches, Grand, South, and Midland, near the Verazzano Bridge.

Lifeguards will be posted to serve those who dare swim. Good luck. Other than pollution, Coney Island's chief crisis seems to be one of the spirit, that is how to continue to attract the middle-class to what was once "the middle-class Riviera." Area business people are hoping that a bevy of new amusements will halt the decline of Coney that began when Steeple Chase Amusement Park and the Parachute Jump were closed several years ago. The new attractions include an entirely new Steeplechase Park with rides, games, and even a Freak Show for those who don't find it on the beach. The Steeplechase's Freak Show features a Fat Lady and "the world's tallest giant," it says here.

Dominates landscape Another new amusement park at Coney is Astroland, located next to the Aquarium. The special feature here is the Space Tower Ride, a 230-foot needle which challenges the Parachute Jump for domination of the Coney Island landscape. And Coney business wallahs are particularly enthused over the Jumbo Jet, a new all-steel roller coaster imported from West Germany and situated near Nathan's. Other usable city beaches include Orchard Beach, a horseshoe-shaped oasis on Long Island Sound in the far northeast corner of the Bronx, and Manhattan Beach, an attractive sliver of sand near Coney Island 4n Brooklyn. Until something better comes along, they'll have to serve as New York's Cote d'Azur and Costa Brava.

One of the most overlooked advantages of New York's 17 miles of city beaches is that they are but a microcosm of a wide-open city. Anything goes. On a recent weekday at Coney Island, for instance, one could observe "Herman," an elderly gent who passes his retirement summers sifting through the sand with a converted chicken basket, looking for life's riches. Herman takes in about J2 a day in change. Then there was Vito Agate, an off-duty postman swimming in the 50-degree brine because "I'm crazy." And three long-haired youths were dropping out of a crosscountry drop-out to spend some time gabbing on the sand.

Anything went last season too. Among the unclaimed lost-and-found items at one roller coaster concession were three brassiere. But surveys show that the anything-goes ambiance of city beaches is not enough to attract many earless Manhattanites who just can't stomach the 50-minute subway ride to Coney Island or the hour and a half to Rockaway. For them, local nirvana is on the way in the form of the long-discussed Gateway National Park. Gateway Park will combine little used areas of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey into a recreational paradise that should include many miles of new beachline.

As of now, however, there's no way to get to Gateway areas by cheap public transport, and plans to provide bus service have been shelved. Moreover, the opening of the park is still several -years off. Until then, New Yorkers will have to rely on Augie Heck-seller's decimated army to prevent city beaches from being beached. 5 iuuh, simrseijr-useu uji vuucj a jiuuuc ucacnnui once again.