The Times has a sort of elegy for McCarren Park Pool, which will probably stop hosting its “Pool Party” events after this summer as the city readies a $50 million renovation of the property that will turn it back into a swimming pool:

…Perhaps no other concert space so clearly illustrates the swift effects of gentrification. Just as bohemian culture in Greenpoint and Williamsburg is having its most visible, celebratory moment, it is being bulldozed out of the neighborhood. Rows of gleaming luxury condominiums have sprung up alongside the park, and the tattoo-and-skinny-jeans set is getting priced out. That McCarren Pool will be filled with water again has pleased many longtime residents and activists. But at several recent concerts the prevailing opinion was: bummer.

The quotes from concert attendees on the one hand and longtime Williamsburg/Greenpoint residents on the other underscore the competing desires for how the space should be used. They let it rot for years and years, and now all of a sudden they’re like, ‘It’s viable to turn it into a pool again,’ says Liz Castaldo, a 23-year-old who lived in Williamsburg until a rent hike precipitated a move to Bushwick. In the other camp are people like Phyllis Yampolsky, founder of the McCarren Park Conservancy and a Greenpoint resident since 1982. The basic need of that pool is as a pool and recreation center for all the peoples of North Brooklyn, which includes a lot of black people and a lot of Latino people, says Yampolsky. Its basic needs are not for the fashionistas of Williamsburg.
It’s Been Quite a Pool Party, but the Days Grow Short [NY Times]
Photo by sjr7658.