{"id":179764,"date":"2026-03-30T15:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179764\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:52:09","slug":"community-frustration-grows-over-metropolitan-recreation-center-closure-in-williamsburg-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179764\/","title":{"rendered":"Community frustration grows over Metropolitan Recreation Center closure in Williamsburg \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December 2024, Rifka Friedman renewed her membership at the Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg, as she has for 65 years. A day later, she learned the pool was closing.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no notice \u2014 nothing,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Friedman, a local resident since 1951, learned to swim in the pool at age 12 and used it regularly ever since. As she\u2019s aged, the pool has grown increasingly important to her health.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI take care of myself, but if I don\u2019t have a pool I can\u2019t do that,\u201d she told Brooklyn Paper.\n<\/p>\n

Over a year since the sudden closure \u2014 which the New York City Departments of Parks and Recreation blamed on a failing dehumidification and air circulation system \u2014 community members say they\u2019re still in the dark about the 104-year-old pool\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Swimmers, advocates and elected officials gathered at the rec center\u2019s shuttered entrance on March 25, calling on the city to prioritize the pool\u2019s renovation.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul, please expedite the repair of the pool so we can have it back. The women in the community are suffering,\u201d said Bella Sabel, who, like Friedman, is part of a group of Orthodox Jewish women who frequent women-only swim hours.<\/p>\n

The pool provides a crucial space for community-building, recovery from injury, and exercise for older swimmers so they can \u201cstay independent as long as possible,\u201d Sabel said.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Local residents rally support through petitions from the Women\u2019s Swim Coalition and Williamsburg Swimmers, urging city officials to reopen the pool.Photo by Brennan LaBrie \"\"Bella Sabel, a regular at women-only swim hours, urges city leaders to reopen the Williamsburg pool.Photo by Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

While nearby gyms offer pool access, the cost is steep \u2014 a membership at Equinox\u2019s Bedford Avenue location starts at $350 a month. A day pass to the Williamsburg Bathhouse runs $40-80. The rec center, meanwhile, costs most adults $150 a year, and just $25 for seniors, veterans, and those with disabilities. Youth under 25 can join for free.<\/p>\n

Friedman now takes a bus three times a week to a lower Manhattan pool with reserved swim time for women, paying significantly more on membership and transportation than in the past.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a burden for me, but I have to swim,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes Williamsburg, had stern words for the parks department.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile they spent close to 10 months trying to make temporary solutions work, they didn\u2019t do jacksh-t to move forward with the long-term capital project,\u201d Restler said. \u201cSo now here we are, a year and a half later, and we\u2019re still years away from the pool reopening. That is unacceptable. The parks department has failed us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso also slammed the parks department.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a money issue; this is about parks being inefficient,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

NYC Parks has hired a contractor for the pool\u2019s renovation, but is still procuring materials, according to the department\u2019s project tracker.<\/a> No timeline is set for construction, but projects usually take 12-18 months, the tracker states. The city is still accepting contracting bids for a separate project<\/a> to reconstruct the pool\u2019s filter. Brooklyn Paper has reached out to NYC Parks for comment.<\/p>\n

\"\"John Surico, senior fellow at the Center for an Urban Future, calls the pool closure a \u2018visceral example\u2019 of the city\u2019s underinvestment in public recreation.Photo by Brennan LaBrie \"\"NYC Parks faces criticism for delays and underinvestment as the Metropolitan Recreation Center pool remains closed, leaving Williamsburg residents with few affordable swimming options.Photo by Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

The rec center\u2019s closure is a \u201cvisceral\u201d example of the city\u2019s underinvestment in recreation, said John Surico, Senior Fellow for Climate & Opportunity at the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), at the rally.<\/p>\n

Recreation spending once accounted for one-third of NYC Parks\u2019 budget, but now sits at 5.3% \u2014 the lowest amount per capita spent on recreation out of any U.S. city, he said.\n<\/p>\n

Williamsburg is one of the recreation deserts identified in CUF\u2019s recent report on recreation access<\/a> in the city, with each of its public recreation facilities serving 4,300 residents \u2014 triple the citywide average. These deserts are expanding as facilities face staffing shortages, disrepair and closures.<\/p>\n

When the Metropolitan pool closed, it left just one other public indoor pool for Brooklyn\u2019s 2.6 million residents, meaning almost no affordable year-round swimming opportunities, Surico added. The recent opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center<\/a> in Flatbush, which includes a competition-sized pool, has brought relief to a major recreation desert.<\/p>\n

The lack of pool access in Brooklyn neighborhoods is a public health issue, said Kate Krause, founder of the Brooklyn-based water safety non-profit Rising Tide Effect. Pools don\u2019t just offer a space for leisurely swimming, but also essential water safety education in a city where \u201ctoo many kids don\u2019t know how to swim,\u201d Krause said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closure of the Metropolitan Pool is not just an inconvenience; it\u2019s a loss of life-saving resources,\u201d she said. \u201cDrowning is preventable, but prevention requires access.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Kate Krause, founder of water safety nonprofit Rising Tide Effect, warns that the Metropolitan Pool\u2019s prolonged closure threatens public health by limiting access to essential swimming and water safety programs.Photo by Brennan LaBrie \"\"For over a century, the Metropolitan Recreation Center pool has been a hub for swimming, health and community in Williamsburg.Photo by Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

Surico called on the city to boost investment in and fully staff recreation centers across the city.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Parks continues to do what it can with limited resources, but the gap between needs and capacity keeps widening,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Petitions to re-open the pool have been launched by the Women\u2019s Swim Coalition and Williamsburg Swimmers<\/a>. New Yorkers For Parks, who joined the rally, have created a petition<\/a> calling on the city to increase recreation funding citywide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In December 2024, Rifka Friedman renewed her membership at the Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg, as she has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3075,72614,9,24,12,370,63,22458,14182,11472,1424],"class_list":{"0":"post-179764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-lincoln-restler","12":"tag-metropolitan-recreation-center","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newsletter","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-parks","19":"tag-parks-department","20":"tag-swimming","21":"tag-williamsburg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}