Should McCarren Park Pool Be Restored?
“Now that they’re not going to destroy the pool, it’s magnetic” Phyllis Yampolsky, an artist and a longtime Greepoint resident, says about the McCarren pool, shown above in a 1937 photograph. The following year after the pool shut down in 1983, residents blocked Parks Department workers from repairing it because they wanted to give youths…
“Now that they’re not going to destroy the pool, it’s magnetic” Phyllis Yampolsky, an artist and a longtime Greepoint resident, says about the McCarren pool, shown above in a 1937 photograph. The following year after the pool shut down in 1983, residents blocked Parks Department workers from repairing it because they wanted to give youths from other nabes less reason to hang around the park. Twenty two years later, the neighborhood is split over the pool’s future: on one side those who would love to have a gigantic swimming hole in their front yard; on the other, those who like the idea of continuing to use the pool as a space for music and performing arts.
The Glory of the Past–Or Not [NY Times]
I’m not too familiar with this concept. I didn’t grow up in NY so I’ve never seen anything like this. how do they watch all these kids at once and keep them from drowning? how do they keep this place clean? and how can you even swim when the pool is packed like this? although, I think its a great idea to have somewhere for kids to enjoy themselves and stay out of trouble I can only imagine the germs festering in that water!
Of course the pool should be restored. The Red Hook pool is a civic treasure. Its not rowdy at all and there are no problems with crowd control. Its filled with families on weekends enjoying good clean fun. And unlike the 1950s – we don’t have to worry about Polio. If the restored McCarren Park pool is anything like the Red Hook pool – it’ll attract a cross section of Brooklynites including families who live in public housing and and families from Park Slope. The Red Hook Pool attracts a large number of betattooed artsy youngsters too. Judging from all the hipsters playing baseball in McCarren Park in the summer, I bet they’ll be taking to the pool in droves also. I can’t see any downside to restoring the pool.
Agreed with above. Restore and love.
love love love the Red Hook pool
I say restore this to its former glory
City kids need access to H2O
As noted above, the Red Hook pool is excellent. And while people do get rowdy, the life guards and Parks Department officers keep it under control.
I say put the pool in, and to hell with the rich people who are afraid of the brown-skinned people making a rukus.
Yes. And no. Discuss.
The pool in Red Hook is fabulous. I have spent many a summer afternoon there. It has really made summers in the city bearable. The dressing rooms and showers need upgrading, but the pool itself is fabulous and well-managed. The Parks staff even plant flowers in planters. And there’s a separate gentle kiddie pool for the toddler set. Everyone (all walks of life) goes there – a truly democratic place, it seems to me.
I used to use the one in Sunset Park and Staten Island as a kid and it was a fun (and safe) experience. But that was during the oh-so-repressed late ’50’s-early ’60’s when folks more or less behaved themselves. Well, that was then and this is now–a whole new situation and set of expectations. Whoever buys into all those new developments around the park will NOT welcome refurbishing it to be as it once was, drawing thousands from outside GP on hot days to overwhelm the neighboring park and vicinity when not in the pool.
I look at that shot, so like the scenes from my childhood and can’t help but think that such nowadays would call for a major police presence or at least serious crowd control. Who needs that?
Unfortunately for GP, the building is not a piece of crap that can be demolished. It’s a gorgeous…white elephant. I guess some decision will have to be made eventually.
Let’s get a pool for our kids. The pretentious Agora media hog speaks as if there is a constituency for her foolishness. No one wants to keep it as is. This is a typical NY Times lazy reporter not even bothering to interview the neighbors about the article. The only battle is how preserved to the original the pool should be.