The city’s parks commissioner dismissed reports that racial and economic tensions were the cause of the recent violence at the newly opened McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg.
Speaking on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show on Friday, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe chalked up the rash of violence to “isolated incidents” and said it was an example of “young people doing dumb things on a hot day.”
“I don’t buy for a minute that it’s racial or economic tensions,” Benepe said.
Benepe, who said he visited the pool Thursday, described it as a “calm oasis” where 28,000 people have visited since it opened.
“A couple of hotheads got out of control,” Benepe said. “This has been blown out of proportion. … People have short memories. They forget it wasn’t too long ago that there was all kinds of mayhem happening at the pools.”
Less than a week after the historic pool was reopened after nearly 30 years, a lifeguard was attacked and three men arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer on the grounds of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg landmark.
The Parks Department has said McCarren isn't alone, that incidents of fighting and other rowdiness happen at pools throughout the city.
(Photo: McCarren pool reopened last week. Kathleen Horan/WNYC)
Frequent Parks Department critic Geoffrey Croft, president of watchdog group NYC Parks Advocates, said the city should been more thoughtful when it came to planning and security issues.
“The city had 28 years to work out a safety plan for that facility that protected both the public and employees alike,” Croft told WNYC last week. “You can't let a few people ruin the experience for hundreds of thousands in such a wonderful facility.
But Ridgewood, Queens, resident Ana Soto, who visited the pool twice this week, told WNYC she blamed unsupervised kids, not the lack of staffing, for the problems.
"I don’t think teens under 18 should be allowed in without an adult. And parents should tell the children when you go to a pool you have to have control and it’s to have fun—not to fight or to jump. Follow rules and everyone can get along really good."
Bloomberg celebrated the re-opening of the landmark pool built in 1936 and closed in 1984 on Thursday. It underwent a three-year, $50 million renovation.
The Parks Department offered to renovate the pool in the 1980s, but the Community Board and other concerned citizens went in the opposite direction and opted to close it instead.
McCarren experienced a brief period of creative re-use when organizers turned the empty pool basins into a stage for performances, including bands such as Wilco and Sonic Youth, and outdoor movies.
Kathleen Horan contributed reporting