Jones Beach, other Long Island state parks see 'huge' increase in visitors

Subtract the spectacular events from Jones Beach State Park — the Bethpage Air Show, the July Fourth fireworks, the concerts, charity walks and runs — and realize how right its creators were: The sea and the sand are the real draws.

The coronavirus forced everyone but essential workers into quarantine and caused the shutdown of everything from restaurants, playgrounds and sporting events to Broadway shows. But even a once-in-a-century pandemic wasn't enough to keep New Yorkers from Jones Beach and other Long Island state and county parks.

Located less than 30 miles from Manhattan and featuring a boardwalk stretching two miles, with white sand beach three times that distance, Jones Beach State Park drew nearly 104,000 more visitors in the first eight-plus months of 2020 than last year. State officials tallied 6.5 million people at the Wantagh beach park from Jan. 1 to Sept. 7, the Labor Day holiday, when attendance often leaps.

The 33 Long Island state parks drew 20% more visitors during that period than in 2019, despite antivirus safeguards that required donning masks, shut pools, and halved the number of cars allowed to park — forcing officials to routinely close fields on sunny days, especially on weekends.

Tropical Storm Isaias, which leveled thousands of trees and cut power to 400,000 Long Islanders on Aug. 4, also shut a number of parks for days as workers hauled away debris and restored electricity.

Countering all these factors that could have cut attendance, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo waived park fees from March 16 to June 6, offering New Yorkers a safe way to escape the tedium and pressure of having to stay home.

"This attendance shows the importance of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision to keep these facilities opened throughout the crisis, with density reduction and enhanced cleaning protocols in place to reduce potential transmission of COVID-19," State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said in a statement. "I’m proud of our State Parks staff for working to provide this critical public service."

About 24.3 million people visited Long Island state parks during the period measured, up 4 million from last year.

"The year-to-date [figures] tell the story," said Long Island regional director, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation George Gorman, by telephone. "It's huge, huge."

Another outperformer was Robert Moses State Park, just east of Jones Beach, where officials said 1.17 million more people came, for a total of 4.25 million. Captree State Park, another South Shore barrier sibling about 10 miles further east of Jones Beach, had 437,000 more visitors, for a 1.46 million total. East Islip's Heckscher State Park, the former estate of the Town of Islip's founder, William Nicoll, chalked up a 418,000 increase, hitting 1.24 million.

As February ended, the pandemic’s death toll began spiraling, seemingly ever higher.

"Right after that, our attendance skyrocketed," Gorman said.

Farmingdale’s Bethpage State Park and Brentwood State Park are among the sole exceptions. At the former, the number of visitors slid about 193,000 from the year-ago total, which was exceptionally high because the PGA played its championship there, to 451,000 this year. And closing Brentwood State Park’s playing fields caused attendance to drop by 63,510, to 424,837.

Long Islanders’ love of the outdoors also can be seen in the figures for county parks.

In Nassau, visits to parks with fees — the sole ones tracked — mainly rose, though there were exceptions because of COVID-19 restrictions, which included temporarily barring people who live outside the county.

Nickerson Beach in Lido Beach more than doubled its attendance from 2019. The total shot up to 23,586 from 11,477, despite a 50% limit to ensure social distancing, Christine Geed, a parks spokeswoman, said by email.

While Cuomo only prohibited golfing for around a week or so in mid-April, as the definitions of essential and nonessential businesses shifted, Geed said miniature golf was not permitted until June 26, with limits on capacity.

And that is why East Meadow’s Eisenhower Park, the Central Park-size oasis Nassau created after the landowners failed to pay taxes on it during the Great Depression, saw attendance slide to 13,067 from 19,635 in 2019.

Suffolk’s Smith Point County Park, located on the eastern part of the South Shore's Fire Island, was so popular with Atlantic beachgoers that it had to be closed on almost every sunny day. That clipped attendance by 4% to 258,374 from a year ago, said Derek Poppe, a county executive spokesman, by email.

Another nearby ocean park, Cupsogue Beach County Park, which spans Fire Island and Westhampton Island, attracted 120,000 people, a 15% rise. Meschutt Beach County Park, located on the Great Peconic Bay, had 60,085 visitors, up 7%, Poppe said.

Correction: Meschutt Beach County Park had a 7% increase in visitors over 2019. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect percentage.