Pool People Peeve Residents
The Brooklyn Eagle reports on the reaction of Joralemon Street residents to the sudden flood of folks using their street to access the Floating Pool Lady. The article claims the source of anguish is the fact that many of the poolitizens who walk by are "half-naked". We wonder if that's only "half" the story. What do you think?
Brooklyn Eagle: Scantily Clad Swimmers: “The problem I have is that I don’t want to look at men naked from the waist up, with boobs as big as mine,” said Doris Walton, a 40-year resident of Joralemon. She said, while the pool is a very good idea and is a great attraction for children and their parents, she’s upset with the slew of people who use her block as a main pathway to the pool…
Shortly after the pool opened a few weeks ago, a young lady wearing only her bikini, apparently en route to the pool, spread her blanket on Joralemon Street near Garden Place, where she said she was waiting for a friend. A long-time resident of Garden Place walking by told the woman to “please confine your sunbathing to Brooklyn Bridge Park,” and continued in a huff.
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Posted : July 31st, 2007 at 10:26 am by Homer Fink under News.
Comments: 29
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Comments
Comment from JamieP
Time: July 31, 2007, 10:55 am
I see what you’re trying to say, and I’m not biting. I also think the people walked around in bikinis is a little odd. I live on Clark St and see a LOT of girls in bikinis and towels and little else. I guess they may all live locally. I hope so - I’d hate think they were taking the subway like that.
Comment from Claude Scales
Time: July 31, 2007, 11:33 am
Let’s face it, folks. The Heights is now a seaside resort community. Soon to come: curio shops selling colorful shells, oddly shaped pieces of driftwood and caps decorated with embroidered anchors; whole sections of CVS, Duane Reade and Rite Aid given over to sunblock and beach towels; drinks adorned with parasols at the local watering holes.
Perhaps on the horizon: a proposal to change the name to “Bargehampton.”
Comment from Publius
Time: July 31, 2007, 1:37 pm
Well clutch my pearls, young people not of my race walking through the Heights in various states of undress. I swoon on my patrician Louis VII ottoman.
Comment from cobbler
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:00 pm
I wish CVS, Duane Reade etc. had some basic swimming supplies. I went to 4 different drugstores in and around the Heights and could not for the life of me find swim goggles or a swimming cap. I know, I know, one does not neccesarily NEED these things to swim in the floating pool but I for one wear contact lenses and wish to protect my hair from chlorine.
Comment from BH resident
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:05 pm
I live on Joralemon and really couldn’t care less about this issue. I think it’s great for the few stores on our street, as people may buy food and drinks there to cart to the beach. I’ve seen few bikini clad folks or guys with man-boobs, and if I saw more of them, it wouldn’t bother me in the least. Big deal. People need to find real issues to be upset by!
Comment from stew
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:23 pm
I have to agree with BH resident. Who really cares. This lasts for only a couple of months a year. Let the people enjoy the weather!
Comment from JL
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:28 pm
I think I read that the barge will move to the Bronx next year anyhow, so only one more month or so of bikini and boob sightings. Not a big deal folks.
Cobbler: CVS at Love Lane had goggles a few weeks ago, picked up a pair myself for $6.
Comment from steve
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:34 pm
How corwded is the pool on a typical weekday? When I went by a few weeks ago on a Saturday, there were a lot of people there and what looked like a longish wait to get on board.
Comment from James
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:41 pm
Seems to me Publius was the ONLY one to bring up race. I wonder who has the problem with people of different races?
Comment from Tim N.
Time: July 31, 2007, 2:57 pm
Um, I actually agree with Publius. The park has long been an issue with Joralemon Street, and if you talk to the folks there, race has a lot to do with it.
To wit:
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0616F7345B0C758DDDA10894D8404482
It was the same with the movie theater/Barnes & Noble. People said they didn’t like the color of the building, but it was the color of the people using the building that was the issue.
I, on the other hand, want to know where the bikinis on Clark Street are. I’ve seen the pajamas and flipflops crowd from the dorms, but I must be missing something.
Comment from Idiot
Time: July 31, 2007, 3:12 pm
Would it solve the problem if the people with man-boobs put on man-kinis?
Comment from nabeguy
Time: July 31, 2007, 3:17 pm
Ricky’s definitely needs to rethink their move to Montague Street…sounds like Joralemon St. would be the PERFET place for them!
Comment from CS
Time: July 31, 2007, 3:30 pm
You people are very funny today….I’m all for T&A in the hood
Comment from steve
Time: July 31, 2007, 3:48 pm
Cobbler, also check out Modells for goggles . . . right on the Fulton Street Mall, nearby. They have the Speedo brand, which are excellent.
By the way, I’m having a hard time believing that there is a steady stream of shockingly scantily clad pool-goers parading down Joralemon Street. Maybe what we have in the neighborhood is an outbreak of prudishness?
Comment from JamieP
Time: July 31, 2007, 4:25 pm
The girls I see are white btw. About the age of my 14yo daughter. I have issues with 14yo girls walking down around Columbia/Clark in very tiny bikinis mostly bcs they’re giving my daughter bad ideas (from her dad’s POV)
And I wouldn’t be too suprised Steve. It’s hard to store stuff at the pool so it’s better to show up ready to swim. It’s kind of an issue.
Comment from Sam
Time: July 31, 2007, 8:15 pm
you guys are such ninnies. Its all the black folks walking down joralemon street and other streets when they get lost, that have people talking. At least on my block.
This is the US, It’s all about race, Hello?
Comment from beach lady
Time: July 31, 2007, 9:29 pm
Please, can’t we all just enjoy the pool and allow the public to get there how they want the way that they want???
Complaining and criticizing achieves nothing helpful.
And– F.Y.I.–it’s legal to go topless in NY (see below link). So, in fact, said bikini trekkers are acting well within the law, and, perhaps, even conservatively.
Comment from No One of Consequence
Time: July 31, 2007, 11:38 pm
One good bikini (over 18yo) is worth ten pairs of man-boobs.
Pingback from » Red Hook’s Deadly Nature
Time: August 1, 2007, 3:56 am
[...] Brooklyn Heights: Those who live on Joralemon Street are not pleased about the parade of swimmers on their way to the floating pool. [Brooklyn Eagle via Brooklyn Heights Blog]Bushwick: Is a developer surreptitiously buying up air rights to build a condo tower? [Bushwick BK]Central Park: Starting Monday, car-free time in the park on the West Drive extends by one hour in the morning. Now you only have to watch for traffic between 8 and 10 a.m. [Streetsblog]Chelsea: Chelsea Hotel residents got a note saying that BD Hotels was “no longer the managing agent.” An elaborate hoax or what? [Hotel Chelsea Blog]Clinton Hill: Someone’s trying to flip a heinous Green Avenue building for a ridiculous $1.4 million. [Brownstoner]Park Slope: Thank goodness there’s an instruction manual for the summer, lest we forget to watch a baseball game and let our dog crap on some guy’s stoop. [Newyorkshitty]Red Hook: Beware the dog-eating tree on Van Brunt Street. [McBrooklyn]Williamsburg: Bruce Ratner’s crew is looking for an artist’s workspace to use in a promotional video for investors. If you’re interested, keep your I.D. a secret for your own safety. [Curbed] [...]
Comment from Brooklyn Tattoo
Time: August 1, 2007, 8:43 am
We started to get Browsers in bikinis the first week of the pool. Alot of the swimmers seem to exit down Hicks to Atlantic, we get about a half doczen a day, no one has signed on to get a tattoo yet, its only a matter of time.Since they dont have liquor, the seem to gravitate towards the Atlantic ave bars as well. God bless the floating Lady and the ladies that float in her. Hey Joreolamon St, wait until the Brooklyn Bridge Park is finished It will look like that scene in Summer Vacation with John Candy…
Pingback from Brooklyn Heights Blog » Open Thread Wednesday 8/1/07
Time: August 1, 2007, 9:32 am
[...] Pool People Peeve Residents [...]
Comment from Tim N.
Time: August 1, 2007, 10:09 am
Beach Lady… I was already grateful for bikinis, but thanks for the reinforcements.
Comment from 5w30
Time: August 1, 2007, 11:32 am
We’ll take the nubiles in their bikinis.
What we won’t take are the man boobs.
Get a t-shirt!
Comment from nabeguy
Time: August 1, 2007, 12:42 pm
The Joralemon St folks really need to get more into the spirit of the pool. Maybe they can start by turning the hill into a giant slip and slide!
Comment from spm
Time: August 1, 2007, 2:49 pm
Beach Lady, I’m with you. Let’s all just enjoy and not devolve into nastiness.
As a resident on Montague Street, we get TONS of people walking by en route to the Promenade so a few pool-goers a few hours a day is nothing compared to the 24/7 foot traffic (and sometimes illegal bicycling) which goes on by me. Live and let live - we’re the lucky ones living here full time.
Comment from vnbarrow
Time: August 5, 2007, 2:22 pm
THE PROBLEM, it seems, residents are having (aside from the very few of you who have the right / light attitude about allowing New Yorkers from all backgrounds and boroughs enjoy the luxury of not only the new floating swimmin pool but the beauty of the neighborhood as well) is CHANGE. I’m sure there would be no “real” cause for all of this bitter criticism if the Floating Pool Lady were only open and accessible to the BH residents and their kids. The neighborhood, and the quality of the pool water, would be deemed “safe” and pristine. …This is 2007 ladies and gentelmen! To read the comments above is absolutely shocking and disgusting. To think that all of this unnecessary hoo-haa is being created (and disguised as a ‘traffic flow’ problem in an otherwise quiet neighborhood) over a few people/kids/adults/rightful citizens, who also happen to be non-white, walking around in their swim suits is so selfish. Lighten up!!!! And stop being so shocked and alarmed to see ‘different’ people enjoying your otherwise pristine neighborhood. If you don’t want to see them there, then you should have petitioned against having the pool dock itself at the edge of your neighborhood. What exactly did you expect???? That the ‘others’ wouldn’t hear about??? That they would be afraid to treck through your neighborhood to get to the pool????? That the pool was stationed there just for YOUR use and enjoyment????? Get real people. And wake up and smell the NY coffee. NY is a melting pot for a slew of races/ethnicities/cultures,etc. We all live in this city together. We all have the same rights to enjoy ourselves and the free/public amenities that are offered to us. Why is it so hard to just accept that simple fact? Were you expecting there to be some ‘back door’ approach to the pool that re-routed all of the ‘undesirables’ to the longer/less manicured/hidden streets to get to the pool???
If you’re so afraid of these youth, of various colors and backgrounds, helping themselves to the PUBLIC pool (by way of your sacred street), then maybe you have to do some internal soul searching and look within yourself to find out why this simple summer activity is making you sooooo uneasy and uncomfortable, ..why the sight of people (the ‘others’) enjoying themselves on a hot summer day is so upsetting and disturbing. Now, let’s all stop and take a moment to dissect/digest this……
Comment from JOEL
Time: July 14, 2008, 2:22 pm
IT’S TIME TO HAVE THE SWIMING POOLS IN NEW YORK HOURS FOR MAN ONLY AND FOR WOMAN ONLY
Comment from CJP
Time: July 14, 2008, 10:17 pm
Joel. I’ll take the bait. Why in God’s name would you want to do that?
Comment from No One Of Consequence
Time: July 14, 2008, 11:35 pm
So he’ll know what times would be good to be a peeping tom?
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