damn

well, that kind of sucks.

$50 million for a pool? Seems like a lot.

now all the bankers will have somewhere to send the nanny and kids

Thank god! Someone at City Hall is finally preserving and adding park space, since the rezoning of the waterfront was a disaster in terms of 'green' space allocation and Benepe was all proud about it. Great News!

Owners of the Poolside condominiums are going to be quite pleased. This is a big win.

Yeah, those evil, evil bankers.

ohhhh i cant wait to soak my body in greenpoint water

Awesome! I can't wait to pee in a $50 million pool!

The pool may be reduced in size, but the 50 million dollar project includes a new year round recreation center. Three cheers for Mayor Bloomberg!!!

Oh, it seems that the racist billyburg bloggers are taking cheap shots at Greenpoint again in the comments sections. Spending time at Grand Ferry Park in Williamsburg next to a radioactive facilty is so much cooler.

That's awesome news! I mean, it's a pool, why not use it as...a pool?

Big win for everybody. McCarren Park is well-used by people from all over the community, and I'm sure the pool will be, too. In it's present state, it is mainly used by white, twentysomething indie fans. Which was better than nothing, but this is better still! Let's go swimming!

I can't wait to pee in that pool!

on first blush this is great. a pool again! and a year-round recreational facility (whatever that is). but i'm bummed that they're making it smaller and no-doubt screwing with the structure's architectural-historical integrity. WPA=real history. there will be justified outcry about this. plus, olympic size just isn't big enough. the public pools in red hook and astoria have crazy lines and they're massive. $50 million could be better spent.

Can they please convert it into a pool before the Disco Biscuits show? It would be great if the hippies finally took a bath.

oh poo.

Great news for the community and my selfish ass, who wants the lineup of Prospect Park to be more solid.

Welcome to our ool. Notice there is no "P" in it. Please keep it that way.

Yo, we all need to find somone to bone in the pool ASAP!

If I lived in the area I guess I would be saddened and pumped but I'm kind of pissed that I won't have anything to do on sundays.

im serious guys, who is going to swim in a public pool in greenpoint? this isnt 1936 anymore.

do emaciated hipsters swim? this is a legit question.

oh good. we can all stand around in shallow water with thousands of small children swarming around us.

i know a lot of people in the area were unhappy about the concerts, but it doesn't have to be either a hipster concert venue or a pool. i think it could have been turned into something for the whole community with all different types of events.

I'm thrilled that thousands of small children will have a place to swim outside. The shows were fun (if the band didn't require decent sound), but I think this is great. And maybe the East River Music Project will help fill the outdoor-indie void.

i agree with tim - if they are going to make it a pool, it should be full sized. the shows are really great, though, in the interim.

"Can they please convert it into a pool before the Disco Biscuits show? It would be great if the hippies finally took a bath."
Yeah because the stale cigarette smoke perfume the trust-fund hipsters smell of is soooo much better.

Yeah, I wish it was full-size. That would be amazing. I hope they keep the iconic arch/entrance thing. Any color but beige, please.

"oh good. we can all stand around in shallow water with thousands of small children swarming around us."

Oh boo hoo for you. I don't do cramped public pools, but it's going to be great for kids and parents. God forbid something in the area isn't catered to bratty hipsters.

I'll take Disco Biscuits fans over sniveling Williamsburg shitheads any day of the goddamn week. Those mofos know how to have a good fucking time and that show might even qualify as lively and entertaining as opposed to the run of the mill Brooklyn bullshit. They'll definitely have superior drugs there no doubt.

It's also great that the pool is being reclaimed as a public space, free to all and without corporate sponsorship... or maybe with less overt corporate sponsorship.

I heard Bloomberg is setting aside 4 million, not 50.

Sayin Panthro, sayin...

Preach on!!

Hippies over hipsters any day of the week. Motherf'ers know how to party.

Sayin Panthro, sayin...

Preach on!!

Hippies over hipsters any day of the week. Motherf'ers know how to party and have a good time!

Peace and love. Mmmhmm. For the record, there are just as many so-called "hippies" who, just like the Bedford crew, are living off their parents' fortune without a care or job in the world. They just choose to dress slightly differently, not shower, and say "dude, brahhhh" instead of "like, so, I was at Union Pool at this, like, guy/girl, was, like, totally staring at me, and like...."

Hippies, hipsters... didn't they used to be the same thing?

I don't care who plays at the pool. Let the hippies(?) have their fun. But why do people always justify these bands by citing their musicianship? Are the songs themselves any good? When did hippies become such connoisseurs of technical skill? Seriously, I'm curious.

I live in Williamsburg and my parents don't give me any money. I went to college and got a job like the rest of you. sheesh.

Of course absolutely no one in Manhttan is living off their parents' money. Nope. Doesn't happen. Never. Everyone gainfully employed. For the record, I don't personally know any young person in either Williamsburg or Greenpoint who doesn't have a job.

Also, before we get all "this is great for the community, screw you hipsters!" let us not forget the alleged racism that kept the pool closed because "the coummunity" which includes(gulp) black and Hispanic people wanted to use it. That was a long time ago, people will argue. But let's see how long it is before the condo dwellers around McCarren Park start complaing to the CB 1 board about "those kids" who are always causing problems at the pool and in the park and absolutely destroying their property value.

Will, it's little whiney bitches like you who destroy property value. Nobody wants to live within 3 blocks of you or they risk hearing you bitch all day.

Hey Jenna,
Nice, intelligent response that furthers the discourse here. Good job, champ. That said, does my argument seem completely unlikely to you? If you've ever attended a community board meeting in this city--and I have attended a ton of them in both Brooklyn and Queens--it is always the same residents issuing the same complaints and in the same veiled racist manner. It's always "those people" who are ruining parks, public spaces, property values and endangering the safety of our children. I see no reason it won't be the same in Greenpoint/Williamsburg when the pool re-opens.

Soldier on sister.

since its gonna be a pool now we shall call them..........dipsters?.........ok sorry.

Will, what is your point exactly? That the city shouldn't even try to restore the pool? What are you doing to "further the discourse"? Pre-emptively complaining?

i want concerts!!! pooooo i dont wanna swim in greenpoint water and pee....

My point is that these discussions almost always bring out the tired complaints about it being wasted on (fill in the blanks)...trust funders, hipsters, indie fans, etc, etc. And then this gets followed up with the sanctimonious claims that this "will be great for the community." But my experience with local politics and community boards in this city tells me that a lot of these same people who complain about the hipsters and who claim to want this pool back for the community will be the same ones who start complaining once the pool becomes overrun with young black kids and young Puerto Rican kids who "look like thugs." I've heard this racist discussion carried out over and over again. This isn't pre-emptive complaining, this is giving you a flipside to the scenario that I've seen carried out at numerous community boards. New Yorkers hype the melting pot, but are actually afraid of it. These people will miss the hipsters.

Being anywhere near the vicinity of Bedford ave Brooklyn these days is almost as grating on my nerves than dipshits with laptops at a bar. I challenge the priviledged pasty white hipster masses to know holds barred knock down, drag out, brawl in the Thunderdome. My name is Master Blaster and I will take out more people than Jackie Chan in Rumble in the Bronx and Drunken Master put together. My hate is boundless and my followers are legion. I will bludgeon my enemies with their own G4 laptops and I will most certainly punch people with glasses. Nobody gives a shit about the community and no one will miss fucking hipsters, trust me on this one. Tina Turner will give me the sign to show no mercy.

this panthro guy sounds like a pussy.

"My name is Master Blaster and I will take out more people than Jackie Chan in Rumble in the Bronx and Drunken Master put together."

Fool...you've never even been to the Bronx!

Please follow all the hipsters and hippies into the deep end of the pool before I pour in the concrete. Long live the McCarren Park Wading Pool for Condo Kids.

God, I hate New York these days....

dootie dootie!!!!

Boy, I must've stuck a nerve ya bunch of Piss Pisstoffersons. I will graciously presribe you a 100 mcg Fentanyl patch to put you ot of yr goddamn misery. You say you hate New York but I can assure you beyond a shadow of a doubt that New York hates you as well, and that's an undisputable fact. snarf, snarf.

P.S. I've been to the Bronx plenty o' times fuckwads.

Sonic Youth is playing the pool on July 28th. On sale date is this Friday, May 5th at 12PM. I wonder if this is a Daydream Nation performance.

yeah it is

yup, full page ad in the Voice

happy to see a run of boring as shit, overpriced and/or over-corporate-endorsed indie schlock shows come to an end. I will benefit far more from a place to swim in the summer.

Too bad its going to be smaller. This place will fill up in no time. If anyone has been to the nearby equally sized WPA pool in Astoria, they would know how awesome it is and how quickly it fills up. I'm sure they will find somewhere else to have concerts. And we all have to admit it makes a pretty crappy venue. Nothing like baking on concrete and being forced to leave your water outside.

If anyone is interested in some history on the pool check out the WNYC show done in 2002 on it. You can download the show here http://www.wnyc.org/shows/tnbt/episodes/2002/08/25 but no more slideshow (my photos from 1993). It was an important part of the neighborhood at one time...

To anyone who read the post by "Greenpoint Archive"

I have been doing a lot of research on this topic since my recent move to Greenpoint, and I have found that "Greenpoint Archive" has gone from website to website promoting this same "pro-corporation" nonsense. Most of what they say is false or skewed at best. I suggest you do your own research instead of listen to them.
To address one point made by Greenpoint Archive....yes, the general cancer rates are the same, or a bit lower in greenpoint than in the other burrows, BUT the leukemia rates are DOUBLE. This is important because benzene is a known cause for leukemia. And it just so happens that the benzene vapor is of oil.
This person obviously has an agenda, which doesn't seem to concern humanity, so please take what they say about as seriously as, say, Fox News.