No White Shoes (or Lifeguards) After Labor Day

Sept. 18, Chicago - A man almost drowned at Jarvis Beach in Chicago's Rogers Park today, on the far north side. Tiny Jarvis Beach, on Lake Michigan, has no lifeguards. Like other Chicago beaches, there is nobody there to protect the beach goers. It's safer now, you see, because it's after Labor Day. At least, that's what the wise fools at the Chicago Park District deemed years ago. They hold Labor Day as a magical date, whereupon danger suddenly decreased and lifeguards were no longer needed. Of course, they were wrong, as proven by the sad events at Jarvis Beach tonight. The man who nearly drowned was taken to nearby St. Francis Hospital in Evanston (we have no decent emergency facilities in this part of Chicago), where he remains in critical condition. ABC7 reports that he was pulled from the lake not breathing. A Fire Department spokesman says he was probably in the water and "in distress" for about an hour. That's sixty minutes, about 59 more that he probably would have been had a lifeguard or two been on duty. Summer officially ends in about four days, but as long as the weather is good - usually through mid-October, thousands of people use the unpatrolled and unguarded beaches. Some do not know that there are no lifeguards. There were no signs warning of this at Jarvis Beach tonight. Had there been, this horrible event might not have happened the way it did.