Delayed Red Hook Pool Opening Leaves Residents Frustrated

by Kirstyn Brendlen, Brooklyn Paper

A broken pipe has forced the Red Hook Pool to close for most of the summer, and residents are steamed.

The issue was discovered days before the pool was scheduled to open on June 27, according to Council Member Alexa Avilés, as crews filled the basin with water. The Parks Department told her office about the issue, she said, but they didn’t know right away how serious the problem was.

When the department first posted about the closure online, it said the pool would reopen by July 19. Within a few days, it became clear that repairs would drag on longer. The broken pipe was “pretty big,” Avilés said, and it wouldn’t be an easy repair.

A Parks Department spokesperson told Brooklyn Paper that the replacement parts need to be custom-made, which will take some time. The pool is scheduled to remain closed at least through mid-August.

New York City pools are open through Sept. 7 — meaning the Red Hook Pool will only be open for a few weeks. As heat waves roll through New York City, the Parks Department has encouraged Red Hook residents to visit the closest open pools in Sunset Park and Gowanus.

Some locals say the city hasn’t done enough to keep them informed — or provide alternatives to get them through the summer.

Alan Mukamal, a longtime local, recently started the Friends of the Red Hook Pool. His gripes with the facility go back farther than last month, but the closure brought his frustration to a head.

“I was first miffed that they announced the closure on the day it was supposed to open,” he said. “I couldn’t fathom how they wouldn’t know about this ahead of time. They do inspections twice a year.”

The pool’s mechanical systems were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as was the Red Hook Recreation Center. According to the Parks Department Capital Project Tracker, reconstruction of the pool’s filter plant is underway, with design and procurement both listed as having started and finished in July, and construction projected to wrap in September. The page, which was last updated on July 18, appears to show that the $230,000 project was initially scheduled to take longer, as procurement was not projected to finish until December.

Mukamal said that for many locals, taking a detour to the Sunset Park or Douglass & Degraw pool isn’t so easy.

“I had little kids, I know I wasn’t going to get them on a bus to go two miles, transfer, go swimming, get back on the bus with the air conditioner on, they’re all wet,” he said. “It’s not a realistic thing.”

Karen Blondel, a lifelong Red Hook resident and president of the Red Hook Houses West Tenant Association, said the closure would have a significant impact on Red Hook Houses residents. The complex has been under construction for Sandy-related repairs and improvements for years, and most of its outdoor areas are still closed, she said, including splash pads at the playgrounds.

“It is really sad and unacceptable not to have the pool open, not to have something already in place for when this type of thing happens,” she said. “How do we still engage the youth and cool down in an area like Red Hook?”

Blondel agreed that taking the city bus between the shuttered pool and the nearest open ones, as navigating there on city buses would be difficult for some residents, especially children.

Locals have teamed up with New Yorkers For Parks to launch a petition calling on the city to open the pool sooner, run a shuttle while it’s still closed, and restore more programs — like lap swim and Learn to Swim — once the pool is reopened.

More work planned at the Red Hook pool

A larger reconstruction of the pool and the Red Hook Recreation Center are in the works, according to the Parks Department. Design for the $122 million project started last month, per the Capital Projects Tracker.

The project will address parts of the facility damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and will include hazard mitigation and various upgrades both inside and outside the rec center and pool.

“This comprehensive reconstruction of the landmarked building will include rebuilding the entire pool basin and its supporting components,” a Parks Department spokesperson said. “We expect to begin construction on this project in 2028, though this timeline is still preliminary and may shift as the design and procurement phases proceed.”

Federal officials secured $8 million in FEMA funding for repair of the recreation center in 2019. In 2021, city officials started searching for an architect for the project, THE CITY reported at the time. Later that year, Hurricane Ida damaged the facility and forced it to close for several months.

The Parks Department told Brooklyn Paper that design for the reconstruction was set to begin in 2022, and in 2024.

FEMA-funded projects at Red Hook Houses and at the recreation center were repeatedly delayed, Avilés said, and while construction at Red Hook Houses is well underway and seems to be “turning a bend,” the rec center is still waiting.

That’s in part because the FEMA funding wasn’t enough to cover the full scope of repair needed at the recreation center, she said, and the Parks Department needed to secure more cash.

While Avilés said she understands the reason for construction delays, the wait is “infuriating.”

“Why does design take years? Why does procurement take a year? These delays are really frustrating,” she said. “We’ve known for quite a while that these facilities need upgrading, and they need care. And to see it drag on forever and then impact pool operations is very frustrating.”

Residents also want to be involved in the reconstruction project. Mukamal was frustrated that the Parks Department hasn’t done more public outreach.

“Who knows, what they’re planning might be great, and no need to change anything, but at least share that,” he said.

Mukamal said he would like to see the Red Hook pool outfitted with changing rooms on the pool deck, instead of inside the recreation center itself, and Blondel pitched a retractable roof so it would be usable year-round, instead of for just a few months in the summer.

“I’d like to see more conversations around water,” she added. “In the last couple years, they added a new program across the city that was offering swim classes for second graders. I think that’s absolutely important, especially as we talk about flooding and climate change.”

Keeping on top of renovations

While Mukamal is frustrated, he is hopeful for the future of the pool. The reconstructed Red Hook ballfields turned out well, he said, as have more recently-renovated pools.

“I know the city can’t just go out and rebuild all the old pools all at once, but they’re chipping away at them and I’m glad we’re next,” he said.

Avilés said her office will remain in constant contact with the Parks Department during repairs and the larger reconstruction project, though she said getting more details is sometimes “like squeezing blood from a stone.”

“We will continue to work with residents to be on top of it, we will require and ask the Parks Department to do public meetings to respond to the resident questions and concerns,” she said. “It’s just honestly the work that we do on a daily basis with every city agency to hold them accountable to move these kinds of projects along.”

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

Related Stories

• After Multi-Million-Dollar Cleanup, Red Hook Ball Fields and Rec Center Reopen Sans Toxic Lead
• Continued Closure of Red Hook Recreation Center Frustrates Local Residents
• Making a Splash in Red Hook: How the Vast Red Hook Pool and Play Center Came to Be

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