The Grand Army Gazette recently covered our ongoing efforts to explore making Prospect Park Lake swimmable. The article highlighted our recent community walking tour and our commitment to understanding both the necessary science and city regulations. It was wonderful to share our long term vision of one day swimming in the lake.

Our dedicated volunteers officially wrapped up our weekly baseline water quality testing for the season. Throughout the summer, we actively monitored Enterococcus, E coli, and microcystin levels across the lake to better understand its ecological health and pollution sources. We are currently compiling this open source data to share with the public and help inform our strategic next steps for the initiative.

We hosted our very first community walking tour of the Prospect Park watercourse, beginning at the Dog Beach. It was wonderful to see a strong showing of new neighbors and advocates excited to explore the ecology of the lake and discuss its future potential.

During Climate Week NYC, Prospect Swims was invited to participate in an intimate urban water restoration roundtable featuring former Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. It was an honor to discuss the global movement for swimmable cities and highlight our localized exploratory efforts in Brooklyn. Hearing directly from the leadership behind the historic Seine River cleanup provided invaluable insights and inspiration for our own long term vision.

The New York Groove recently published a piece covering our early efforts to explore the viability of a swimmable Prospect Park Lake. The article sparked a highly engaging public conversation around how we define urban nature and the careful balance between human recreation and wildlife protection. This coverage has brought a tremendous wave of new interest and momentum to our growing community.

Prospect Swims was in Basel, Switzerland, to present at the Swimmable Cities European Forum. The event offered an incredible opportunity to connect with global urban water advocates and learn from successful natural swimming initiatives in cities like Paris, Vienna, and Copenhagen. The trip concluded with a deeply inspiring community swim down the Rhine River alongside thousands of other people.