Over 40 Williamsburg residents and community members spilled over the stairs of the Metropolitan Recreation Center on Wednesday, chanting “Respect the Rec!” and “Let us swim!” Some donned swim caps, wore bells, and carried written signs made out of life-buoys. The organized rally urged the city to reopen the recreation facility—a dynamic and beloved community resource—which has been closed for over a year.
The Parks Department attributed the January 2025 closure to poor humidification and air circulation, but the gathered nonprofits, community swimming groups, and elected officials spoke to the city’s neglect for public recreation spaces at the core of its closure. The Metropolitan Pool is one of only two public pools in Brooklyn.
“Metropolitan Pool’s closure is a symbol of the need to invest in public recreation,” said Kathy Park Price of New Yorkers for Parks, one of the co-organizers of the rally. Other nonprofits present included North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, Center for an Urban Future, and Rising Tide Effect and Water Safety Coalition.
According to the Center for an Urban Future’s (CUF) recent report, Putting the Rec Back in NYC Parks and Recreation, recreation services once accounted for nearly a third of the Parks Department budget, but today it’s only 5%. This has resulted in understaffing, and abandoned capital projects that would address urgent infrastructure repairs.
“This community is just tired of fighting for parks, every single damn day. We’re over it,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said into a speakerphone. “This is not a money issue. This is about the Parks [Department] being inefficient,” he continued.
Council Member Lincoln Restler, echoed Reynoso’s disappointment in the Parks Department. Restler has been pushing the Parks Department to expedite their long-term capital project to fix the recreation center “once and for all.” According to the Project Phase tracker for Metropolitan Pool reconstruction, procurement is 85% done and construction start date is still undetermined. “We’re still years away from the Met Pool reopening. That is unacceptable. The Parks Department has failed us,” Restler said.
The consequences of the Parks Department’s underinvestment and inefficiency are felt deeply in the Williamsburg community. “This rec center, the Met Pool, is a place that brings the full diversity of our community together,” council member Restler said.
Among the attendees were multiple swimming groups, including the Women’s Swimming Coalition—a group of Orthodox Hasidic Jewish women from South Williamsburg. Some of these women have been swimming at this recreation center since they were teens, and their coalition is paramount to Metropolitan Pool advocacy. Over two decades they were a part of the fight for the original restoration funding, and in the past six years they have been advocating to expand the women’s only swimming hours.
“Please expedite the repair of the pool, so we can have it back. The women from here in the community are suffering. There is no place for us to swim,” Bella Sable from the Women’s Swimming Coalition said.
Other community members voiced the importance of the Metropolitan Pool as a vital resource that makes Williamsburg affordable and liveable. This is especially important in a neighborhood that has long grappled with gentrification—rent increasing 17.34% just in the past year.
Marisa Bowe has lived in her apartment on North 8th Street since 1990 and was also present at the rally. “Every day, when I walk around, I pass by a dozen really expensive gyms, regular gyms, specialty gyms, and I can’t afford any of them, and probably none of us can either,” she said. “We’re surrounded by rich people who can buy time at really fancy gyms, and we don’t even get this one lousy gym. So what’s up?”
The crowd cheered once more, “Whose Pool? Our Pool!” before dispersing, some members heading to the Community Board meeting at Bushwick Inlet Park.