Plumbing problems keep popular Brooklyn pool closed in summer heat
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RED HOOK, Brooklyn (PIX11) -- It's one of the city's largest pools, but in a summer that's seen some of the highest temperatures and humidity in memory, the Red Hook Pool has been high and dry, leaving local residents frustrated and hot.
"I didn't even know the pool was closed," said Kayla Brisbane, who lives near Red Hook, describing her first realization of the seasonal closure during the 100-plus-degree heatwave last month.
"I had all my swim stuff ready", she continued, "and it was closed, and I had to take a cab to the next pool, and spend more money."
The Parks Department has directed her and all other people hoping to cool off at Red Hook to the Douglass & Degraw Pool or the Sunset Pool. Those other facilities are a mile and a mile and a half away, respectively.
The department also stated, in a press release, that the pool closure was due to a significant rupture in a water line. Parks officials also said that it's making repairs to the water line and preparing the pool to re-open in mid-August.
Parks also mentioned that there had been some reporting and rumors about a pool reopening in mid-July. It made it clear that the information is in error.
Local residents expressed skepticism about the city being able to deliver on its intended mid-August reopening. One resident, Freedom Alexander, said that while he felt that the deadline sounds unrealistic, "The quicker the better," he said.
Agreeing with that sentiment was New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group. It's launched a petition calling for rapid reopening of the Red Hook facility, and also calling for a greater investment by the city in parks' infrastructure.
"We need more funding to ensure that problems like this do not happen," said Kathy Park Price, the organization's director of advocacy and policy, in an interview outside of the pool complex. She said that a greater infrastructure investment would help to ensure that issues like the pool's water pipe issue gets "prevented, instead of reactively fixed."
For its part, the Parks Department said on Friday that it is in the design phase of a $122 million renovation of the Red Hook pool and recreation center, set to begin in 2028. It added that the renovation is part of a larger $1 billion program, called Let's Swim NYC, that's designed to improve swimming facilities citywide.