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State of the Beaches 2026: What's open, what's new & what's up with the bathhouse?

Big year for ferry riders, renovated New Deal era pavilions and concessions, bad year for Fort Tilden

Caracas and other boardwalk concessions are open — and there is a new kid in town this summer too. (Photo by Dave Colon)

It was not a great winter overall in the city this year as far as winters go. New Yorkers had to deal with months of dodging wretched carbonite-frozen muck on the sidewalks, a spring that wouldn't cooperate while at the same time the president started a war seemingly on a bet to see how expensive he could make the food you need to live cost. Today, however, you can throw at least some of those cares away because summer is here! Memorial Day weekend is upon us (even if the weather is still not quite cooperating), and enjoying the beaches, sunshine and boardwalk music are always a free thing you can do.

The Groove is back with our annual beach season preview to let you know what to expect, how to get there and what's new this year. And there's a lot new to talk about, including new concessions on new parts of the boardwalk, expanded ferry service and the grand return of the Jacob Riis bathhouse.

The Rockaways

Are any big stretches of beaches closed this year?

For the past few years, sections of the beaches in the Rockaways have been closed for important work like “making sure the entire ocean and boardwalk don’t fall into the sea.” It takes a lot of work to fight the surely winnable battle against the tide, but a lot of the work has been done and disruptions to the beach this year should be relatively minimal.

Expect on-site work and staging of equipment throughout the summer at B116th Street, with public access still available at B117th Street, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman James D’Ambrosio told The Groove. The Corps expects to finish installing a temporary crossover at B131st Street by the end of May. More work is expected at B86th and B106th Street. Any closures will be up to the Parks Department, which has not announced any changes to access this summer, but did not return requests for comment.

“Remaining construction efforts will continue through this summer but will be confined to specific areas as we approach overall construction completion later this year, allowing for reduced risk of flooding/damage from severe storms and tidal surges,” D’Ambrosio wrote in an email.