How to have the perfect NYC beach day

City beach tips from your favorite NYC beach hag.

Hi! Welcome to another installment of Pithy Outcomes. Let’s do some September housekeeping:

Moving forward, I plan to use this newsletter to write more in depth about topics that personally fascinate me — topics that perhaps lend themselves to a book sometime down the road, but in the meantime are things I find interesting that I think you might too. For too long I’ve been sort of ashamed of the topics that fascinate me, thinking that they’re niche interests that others wouldn’t care about, and it’s prevented me from writing about them and sharing them with the world. I’ve internalized a fictitious ungenerous reader who doesn’t exist and is really mean about my writing, and I’ve learned it’s so much easier to write from a place of assuming good faith from your audience — if I’m passionate about something, it’s probably interesting to read, and maybe you’ll find it interesting too.

The Kosoff family has grown (sort of) (NOT MARRIED OR PREGNANT)

OK! With that out of the way, I have a family update (AGAIN: NOT MARRIED OR PREGNANT). It turns out there’s an entire other side of the Kosoff family that, until recently, we haven’t had much contact with. There are reasons for this that go back generations and involve a decades-old family construction business dispute. The patriarch of the other side of the Kosoff family passed away earlier this year, and my dad attended his celebration of life service in Syracuse, New York a couple months ago, and then called to tell me that he’d just met a bunch of Kosoffs — his cousins — and their children, who are roughly my age. 

My family is kind of small, which sounds silly since I’m one of five children. But my dad has two brothers, and only one of them has children. Knowing that there are twice as many of us out there is kind of astounding — it doubles the number of people related to me who share our name. Kosoff isn’t exactly a common name, and through the year I’ve had a number of Kosoffs/Kossoffs who have found my byline online by chance, or searched their surname and found me, and requested to connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook, or messaged me on Twitter. 

But I had never met any of these other Kosoffs! Until now, anyway. Last week, my sister and I got a text from Hannah Kosoff, my dad’s (until recently) estranged cousin Peter’s middle daughter. She’d just moved to the city for grad school and wanted to introduce herself to us. Naturally, I suggested we get dinner at Golden Diner in Chinatown, and we ended up yapping for two hours. I was almost nervous beforehand, like this was a blind date. What would we even have to talk about? A lot, it turns out: Her interest in urban planning; my career trajectory; Robert Moses; having boyfriends who woodwork; our respective families; growing up in the suburbs; our shared religious backgrounds (both of our moms were raised Catholic, and both of our dads were Jewish-ish); being part of a family of exclusively daughters; the worst places to go in New York City; lamenting not meeting until now. It’s uncanny to meet a relative for the first time and note their resemblances to you — Hannah reminds me so much of my own middle sister, Jackie, in appearance and demeanor. We all have the same strong Kosoff brows. She told me she found me online years ago when she looked up her last name and found a Vanity Fair reporter. 

This has encouraged me to reach out to some more Kosoffs and introduce myself. Maybe we’ll have a big Kosoff reunion in a few years so everyone can meet in person. Naturally, I already extended an invite to Hannah for the 2024 Kosoff Thanksgiving dinner.

How do I have a perfect Rockaways day?

Did you know New York City is a beach town? Some (me) would say it’s one of the best beach towns on the east coast, which might be controversial. My opinion is admittedly partially rooted in nostalgia. I lived with my mom’s family in Rockaway Park from June to September 2014 — I had just moved to the city for an internship, I wasn’t totally sold on this place being my forever home (lol), and my undiagnosed anxiety disorder had me paralyzed with fear about making an actual decision about where and how to move to the city. So I commuted 2.5 hours a day roundtrip from their condo by the beach to Union Square, got very well-acquainted with the subway, bus and ferry systems, and spent a lot of time walking around the Rockaways, which was still very much recovering from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy two years previous. I went to the old location of Rockaway Taco for fish tacos, walked right up to the sand from the street (no boardwalk to speak of back then), and hung out at the Bungalow Bar and listened to bands play at Caracas on the weekends. 

There are several beaches accessible to you as a New York City resident. There’s Orchard Beach and City Island in the Bronx. I think there’s a beach at Fort Washington Park in uptown Manhattan. Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach are all in Brooklyn, and South Beach is on Staten Island. But the best beaches in New York City are in the Rockaways — Rockaway Beach, Fort Tilden, and Jacob Riis. I could go on about Fort Tilden and Riis — both are lovely — but for the sake of simplicity, today’s newsletter focuses on the part of the Rockaways that’s accessible via the subway. 

By the way, beach season isn’t over just because it’s Labor Day. Due to a little thing called global warming you can enjoy unseasonably summery beach days until October now. And you should, because it’s literally the only benefit of this climate crisis.

An ~interesting note~ is that the Rockaways has a high concentration of former NYPD and FDNY employees and it generally votes more conservatively than the rest of the city. Just in case you were confused by the abundance of thin blue line type memorabilia adorning every oversized Ford F-150 in the area. 

How do I get there?

OK, you have some options, but brace yourself for a hell of a commute, because at minimum this trip is gonna take you probably 45 minutes, and you’re likely looking at more than an hour of one-way travel depending on where you live. Do NOT let this deter you; it is worth it.

The classic commute is to take the A train toward either Far Rockaway or Rockaway Park (NOT Lefferts Boulevard. Yes the A has two terminals in Queens, no I don’t know why, yes it is so confusing). You then have two options: If the train is headed to Rockaway Park, stay on the train and get off at Beach 90th, Beach 98th, or Beach 105th. These stops put you a 10-minute walk from the beach side of the Rockaways, and near the concessions at the boardwalk. If the train is headed to Far Rockaway, you have a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure situation on your hands: You can either take it to Beach 67th (a weirdly gentrified area of the Rockaways that has a relatively new seasonal rental complex by the water) or stay on until Broad Channel and then transfer to the S (the shuttle train — yes, New York City has several shuttle trains, it’s a whole thing). The shuttle train will take you to Beach 90th, Beach 98th, Beach 105th, and terminates at Beach 116th. To have an ideal beach day (for me this means: relatively uncrowded, proximate to bathrooms and food, can swim) I recommend either Beach 90th or Beach 67th street.

You can also take the ferry from Wall Street, which drops you off on the bay side of the Rockaways at about Beach 108th street. From there you can take the ferry’s complimentary shuttle service to several stops closer to the water. You can also walk (the walk really isn’t that bad — it’ll take you 12-15 minutes to cut across the island to the water, and from there you can walk along the boardwalk to your desired spot on the beach). 

You can also take the bus. This is not ideal but can occasionally be faster than the A train depending on the timing. I don’t recommend taking the bus from like, your apartment, but if you found yourself on an A train heading to Lefferts Boulevard, you can get off at Rockaway Boulevard and get on either the B52-SBS or B53-SBS depending on where you’d like to go in the Rockaways. 

If you have access to a car, you can drive. But if you’re driving, you’re going to have to contend with parking, which is incredibly annoying. If you DO have car access, I recommend going to Jacob Riis or Fort Tilden, which are both less accessible by public transit and more car-friendly. 

Where do I swim?

Here’s what the NYC Parks website says about swimming:

Beaches are open from Memorial Day weekend through September 8, 2024. During beach season, lifeguards are on duty daily, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Swimming is prohibited when lifeguards are not on duty and in closed sections. Closed sections are marked with signs and/or red flags

Now, here’s what Maya Kosoff says about swimming:

You can swim anywhere you want, but my general piece of advice is: watch out for rip currents, bring a friend, and don’t be an idiot. NYC Parks says beaches are closed after September 8, but they don’t actually close the beaches (not to sound like a Muh Freedoms guy, but you cannot close a beach) — they’re just not attended to by lifeguards. 

At Beach 67th street, there are always “NO SWIMMING” signs at this part of the beach, which I believe is because there aren’t lifeguards here and there are a lot of people on surfboards. Give the surfers the right of way and try to swim where you aren’t like, directly in front of them. It is possible a Parks employee will yell and blow a whistle at you if they see you swimming here, so you’ll get out and wait for them to leave before getting back in the water. THIS IS NOT LEGAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE AND MAY BE CONSIDERED IRRESPONSIBLE, but it is just my experience as a swimmer and resident beachgoer here.

There’s also a lot of beach wildlife — a shark washed up around Beach 67th street last week, and when we were there yesterday we saw a WHALE and several dolphins.

Around Beach 90th street, there’s a lot of designated swimming zones in the water, so you can swim pretty freely during beach season.

Where do I pee?

There are bathrooms on the boardwalk by Beach 90th Street. If you’re by Beach 67th street, there’s a First Aid station that let me use the bathroom the other day, but I can’t guarantee they’ll do that for everyone — I just happened to see a Parks employee and ask nicely. Consider drying off, collecting your stuff, and heading to a nearby restaurant to patronize it and their bathroom.

Is my stuff safe if I leave it on the sand?

I don’t want to definitely say “yes, absolutely,” but I’ve never had anything stolen in the 10 years I’ve been going to the beach in New York City. Best to make sure you’re not completely alone on the beach and ask a nice looking nearby person (maybe another solo beachgoer, if you’re by yourself) to watch your stuff before diving in, and make sure you’re not so far into the water or with your back turned to the sand that you can’t keep an eye on your belongings from a distance. As I said before: don’t be an idiot. 

Is it safe, generally?

The Rockaways is one of the places I feel the safest in New York City. I’ve only had one situation in the 10 years I’ve been going to the Rockaways that made me question my safety, and it was this year. I was on the sand, reading a book and minding my business, and a guy came over and started sexually harassing me. He got very close to me and made a lot of gross comments, and tried to touch me. I made sure to make eye contact with all of the people around me to let them know this wasn’t a friend and it was unwelcome behavior and contact, and I repeatedly and firmly asked him to stop and leave me alone in an increasingly loud (and tbh unhinged) voice. Eventually he went away and only then did the guy sitting in front of me who watched the whole thing come over and flash a thumbs up to ask if I was OK. Lol, thanks for your allyship! I was shaken by the experience because a) gross, let me read my Cormac McCarthy novel in peace b) bystander apathy is real but mostly c) I consider the Rockaways to be SUCH a safe place and it sucks that something happened that made me feel otherwise. That said, that is the only such experience I’ve ever had, and it hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for the Rockaways or changed my opinion about going to the beach alone there. 

Where do I eat?

First of all, you can bring food and drinks with you, if you want (duh). Definitely bring water (though there are plenty of stores on your way from the train to the beach if you’ve forgotten), and maybe a mini cooler with drinks and perishable foods, and snacks, if you want to be prepared. It’s a long trip! 

If you’ve posted up around Beach 90th street on the sand (I recommend laying out somewhere between Beach 82nd and Beach 87th street, where it’s a bit less crowded), you’re really close to Rippers, a classic boardwalk institution serving burgers, dogs and fries. It’s pretty unbeatable. If you get back on land, you’re also a 9-minute walk to Tacoway Beach. Get the fish tacos, escabeche and guacamole. 

If you need a drink, have a nutcracker, an extremely potent frozen-ish alcoholic beverage. You can always summon a random passerby nutcracker vendor, but if you want the best of the best, you want Anthony, better known as The Beachtender. You can DM him and ask him if his team is out in the Rockaways that day, and they’ll provide blanket-side service, with flavors like Rockway breeze, Mezcal Margarita, and Strawberry Lemonade Vodka. 

After a day at the beach, head into the cool, dark embrace of Connolly’s on Beach 95th, get yourself a frozen pina colada, and enjoy the sounds of one of the Rockaways’ best Grateful Dead cover bands.

If you’ve opted for Beach 67th street, you have other choices. There’s a Subway, a local pizzeria, a Dunkin/Baskin Robbins, a Super Burrito, and a few other restaurants, bars and grab-and-go style places on your way from the train to the water. You won’t be lacking for choices. I can only really vouch for the Super Burrito (they make a great Crunchwrap Supreme-style offering) and the fountain soda at Subway (nothing hits before a long A train ride home like a fountain Diet Coke). 

That’s everything you need to know to have a perfect Rockaways day! Leave a comment or message if you have follow ups and I’ll do my best to answer them.

xoxo

Maya