Summer in the City
As the summer of 2023 winds down, the AP looks back at summertime through the decades in New York City.
From the crowds at Coney Island, to outdoor arts festivals, parades and the ever-popular open fire hydrant, New Yorkers move outdoors in the summer and beat the heat in ways that are treasured traditions in the Big Apple.
Thousands of bathers are seen at the beach in Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York, July 2, 1991. Astroland Amusement Park is seen in the background with the Wonder Wheel at left, and the Cyclone roller coaster at right. (AP Photo/Michael Alexander)
A dancer poses for a photograph during the West Indian Day Parade, Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The annual parade draws about 1 million people along its 2-mile-long route. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Jon Bon Jovi, left, and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi perform during a free concert celebrating Major League Baseball All-Star Summer on Central Park's Great Lawn Saturday, July 12, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Children relax atop a rock and swim in the north end of the Central Park Lake while others enjoy boating in Central Park, New York City, June 29, 1944. (AP Photo)
Five-year-old Carl Makula receives a congratulatory kiss from six-year-old Patricia Lengel after winning the Cubs' tricycle race in the Children's Aid Society's 14th annual "Anything on Wheels Derby" in New York, Aug. 6, 1952. Carl proclaims himself the "Man of Mars" with the title painted on his chest. The derby was open to boys and girls up to 16 years of age with any kind of vehicle on wheels. (AP Photo/Carl Nesensohn)
Larry Dubois, front, uses a water fountain to cool down between handball games at the West Fourth Park in the Manhattan borough of New York Friday, Aug. 12, 2005. Area temperatures pushed towards the mid nineties again Friday, as the summer heat wave continued. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
In this Sept. 13, 2011 photo, guarded by Bronx resident Chris Rivera, 17, Chris Pena, also 17, shoots a basket at May Matthews/Alexandra Palmer Park playground and park in Hell's Kitchen against the backdrop of Arnold Belkin's 1972 mural "Against Domestic Colonialism," in New York. The national organization Heritage Preservation says Belkin's mural is one of the most endangered public murals in the country. Community members are joining the preservationists as they look into ways to preserve it. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Three men eat ice cream in Manhattan's Harlem on a hazy, hot and humid day in New York Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/David Karp)
Earl Carroll, takes the measurements of Clare Augert of Westchester, N.Y. during the "Modern Venus" Bathing Beauty Contest, at Steeplechase Park, at Coney Island, New York in 1931. (AP Photo)
Thousands of yoga enthusiasts convene in New York's Times Square to mark the summer solstice, Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Temperatures are expected to be near 100 degrees (37C) Wednesday. (AP Photos/Mark Lennihan)
A man sun bathes in Carl Schurz park overlooking the East River and the 59th St. bridge Wednesday, May 30, 2007 in New York. High temperatures are expected to reach the 80s in the New York metro region. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A summer romance blossoms on the beach at Coney Island, New York, July 27, 1961. (AP Photo/John Lindsay)
Youngsters cool off in a portable pool on the sidewalk while a nearby M line subway train travels an overhead pass in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, Tuesday July 6, 2004. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
While the sun boiled over New York on July 10, 1938, these upper east side kids splashed in one of the city's new swimming pools at 112th Street and First Avenue. (AP Photo)
Maj. Samuel Lee, left, and his wife Rosalind look over Astoria Park pool in the Queens borough of New York, just before the Olympic tryouts, June 30, 1952. Maj. Lee is an army doctor stationed at Letterman Army Hospital at San Francisco and is the 1948 Olympic 10-meter diving champion. (AP Photo/Jacob Harris)
Bobby Knapp dives into the center of a pinwheel formed by members of the water ballet, during the weekly rehearsal for the summer “Aquashow” at Flushing Meadows Amphitheatre, Flushing, New York, Aug. 1, 1953. (AP Photo/Ed Ford)
The Aquazanies, hilarious water clowns of the “Aquashow,” take their death-defying plunges from a 40-foot diving platform during a dress rehearsal in New York, June 20, 1956. The show, a New York summer spectacle, will open its 12th season at Flushing Meadow Park. (AP Photo/Carl Nesensohn)
Jairzinho Liverpool, 9, of New York City, leaps through a water sprinkler at a playground in New York's Riverside Park, Thursday July 21, 2005. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
New York Yankees' Mariano Rivera chats with children from Tuesday's Children, children who lost parents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, before a baseball game at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and the Seattle Mariners in New York. From left are Cary Jones, Joe McHugh, Amish Sattaluri and Patrick Hannaford. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Kazutoyo Arai, left, of Saitama, Japan, Eric Booker, center, of Long Island, N.Y., and Takeru Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, compete during the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Contest Wednesday, July 4, 2001, at New York's Coney Island. Kobayashi, winner of the contest set a new world record of 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Drag Queen Cloud performs on stage at Wigstock '94 in New York Sunday, September 4, 1994. Thousands of drag queens and spectators attended the annual Greenwich Village drag festival, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with performances by such famous cross-dressers as RuPaul and Lypsinka. (AP Photo/Paul Hurschmann)
Richard Cohn and his wife Alexandra portray "Neptune and Bubbles" during the celebration of the summer solstice at the 15th annual Mermaid Parade Saturday, June 21, 1997 at New York's Coney Island. (AP Photo/Michael Schmelling)
A mermaid waves to the crowd along the first base line of the Coney Island Cyclones' new ballpark during the 19th annual Mermaid Parade, Saturday, June 30, 2001, in the Brooklyn section of New York. The parade is held annually to celebrate the beginning of summer and the official opening of the beach. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey)
Willard Grant does some chin-ups on a playground bar, Monday, April 16, 2012 in New York. Temperatures climbed above 85 degrees in the New York area. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Louis Tellier, 7, from France, sticks his head in a fountain to cool down in New York, Thursday, July 21, 2011. Hot weather that has plagued the Plains for days spread eastward, blanketing several more states under a sizzling sun and excessive heat warnings that made people sick, shut down summer schools and spurred cities to offer cooling centers and free swimming. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A man enters a designated cooling center at a Senior Center to escape hot weather in New York, Saturday, July 24, 2010. More than 190,000 New Yorkers have visited cooling centers since the summer's first heat wave on June 28, the city said in a statement. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Two passengers on the Parachute Jump ride see throngs of people on the boardwalk and beach at the Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York, July 1, 1957. (AP Photo)
BMX rider George Hoernig of Toms River, N.J., does a no-foot transfer as he performs with the Maximum Velocity group at New York's Chelsea Pier while the sun rises on the first day of summer Friday, June 21, 2002. The Empire State Building is visible in the skyline, at center. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
Text and photo curation by Francesca Pitaro