Another summer wasted.
Village residents were left scratching their heads after learning their beloved neighborhood pool, famous for its Keith Haring murals, would not be available for another year after being closed for five years.
Though the Tony D’Apolito Recreation Center pool is still “in need of major renovation,” it was a staple in the neighborhood sandwiched between Greenwich Village and Hudson Square before it closed for repairs in 2019.
Resident Kitty Hegeman, who has used the pool for 10 years, decried what appears to be slow progress on improving the site since it closed five years ago.
“Years go by and nothing happens,” Hegeman told The Post. “Every summer it just gets worse.”
“It would be a shame to leave it like that for so long. If you’re not going to fix it, make it usable,” she added.
According to the city’s parks department, planning for a $4 million renovation of the recreation center began in 2017 but quickly ballooned to a budget of $17 million, with only 72 percent of the work completed as of May 2024.
“This is one of our top priorities and is under active review,” Mayor Eric Adam’s office said in a statement. “We are evaluating several scenarios to ensure we make the best investment for the area and maximize our recreational space in a cost-effective manner.”
But residents say they feel like for the fifth year in a row the pool has not been a priority as they have been told to use other facilities instead.
“It’s a terrible situation,” said Cristina Diaz, 41, who lives in the area with her two young sons. “It has to be improved.”
“The damage caused by the closure defeats the purpose of repairing it now. The longer it is left, the more it will deteriorate and the longer it will take to repair,” she added.
Becca Quinn, 35, said the pool was once a source of pride for the neighborhood, along with murals by Haring, the New York artist who popularized the New York graffiti style in pop art in the 1980s.
Quinn called the pool’s current state an “outrage and a disservice” to the community, adding that despite the city’s insistence that the artwork be closely monitored, the mural has begun to show signs of cracking and peeling paint.
“They can’t get it together. It’s a terrible situation,” Quinn said. “Everything is so expensive here and people work so hard to live here… They should have access to these services.”
Several other residents also expressed frustration over the pool’s closure, worrying that the lack of facilities during the summer would negatively impact children.
“We need services for our kids in the summer so they have something to do, they’re not bored and they’re in a controlled environment,” resident Andrew Leon said.
Lloyd Dennis, 58, agreed, noting that parents need places like swimming pools and recreation centers to keep their kids busy.
“We’re going to have a lot of kids running around unsupervised, so we’re going to see crime rates spike, as they often do in the summer,” he said.
With the pool closed for the summer again this year, the city told residents to splash around at the Hamilton Fish Pool at 128 Pitt St., but many residents complained the alternative was already too crowded and too far away.
“I would love to have the pool back,” Hegeman said of the Tony D’Apolito Pool. “It would be great to have a public outdoor pool in the village.”
Reporting by Craig McCarthy and Alex Oliveira
