Pool Report: Parks Dept. Promises to Open Red Hook Swimming Hole By August

The Parks Department is sticking with an “end of July” timeline to open the Red Hook pool for the season — and will update the struggling community later this week about why it has failed to maintain an essential public amenity for two years in a row.

The end-of-the-month promise is at least several weeks better than the agency’s performance last year, when the very same pool failed to open for reasons similar to this year’s problem: the flooding of the “filter plant beneath the pool” that resulted in “damage to motors and other equipment,” which meant that the department had to drain and dry the pool, and order repairs.

The end of July can’t come fast enough for Red Hook residents, who had no place to submerge during the first heat wave of the year, one of the hottest stretches in the city since the 1960s. And after this week’s rains pass, the heat will return, with daytime highs in the mid-80s.

For now, the department has set up spray showers during what would’ve been pool hours, between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily.

“It just sucks for the kids,” said Noel S., a resident of the neighborhood. “It’s terrible because it’s the second year in a row that it’s happening.”

The pool, officially called the Sol Goldman Recreation Center, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, and it hasn’t had a major renovation since 1983. A full repair is expected in 2028.

In its most-recent update, the department told Streetsblog that it is “in the process of purchasing four motors and associated electrical panels and equipment.” It is unclear why the department has yet to purchase those motors — or why it needs four.

Streetsblog also asked:

• What exactly do the motors do and how the damage is halting the pool’s opening.
• Why the equipment hasn’t been purchased yet.
• How long installation will take.
• What caused the initial flooding and whether that, too, will be addressed with repairs.
• Whether these repairs will prevent future delays (please, we don’t want a three-peat).
• Whether transportation will be provided to get residents to other area pools, which are hard to get to from Red Hook without a car because of the lack of direct transit connections

One advocate declared that what is happening in Red Hook is a travesty.

“This wouldn’t be happening at a pool in a wealthier neighborhood,” said Kathy Park Price of New Yorkers for Parks, referring to the lack of investment in the pool, even after last year’s sweaty mess.

“We know that Red Hook is a community that sees disinvestment on everything from parks to public maintenance to the streets to transit,” she added. “Given what happened last year, it’s disappointing to learn that parks didn’t prioritize the Red Hook Pool. They didn’t do the work in advance to ensure the pool could open. There is a need for not waiting until things are literally falling apart to address it.”

We will update this story if we get answers from the Parks Department, though the agency said it will update the community on Thursday, July 9 at 6 p.m. at a location to be announced (a previous update session ended up being canceled because — oh the irony — the weather was too hot).