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Photos: First Dip in "Summer Streets" Dumpster Pools
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 2, 2010
Modified Aug 2, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 2, 2010
Modified Aug 2, 2010
Share
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Next Saturday the third annual Summer Streets initiative will create a 6.9 mile, car-free oasis stretching from the Brooklyn Bridge up Lafayette, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue to Central Park. For the first time this year, everyone will have a chance to dive into three deluxe versions of those dumpster pools that debuted at a secret Brooklyn location last summer. (Just don't cut your head open like Bill Murray.) Today NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan gave the press a preview of one of the pools in Carroll Gardens, and naturally photographer Katie Sokoler was the first one in, and she reports that the water was cool, clean and refreshing.
The dumpsters are all different sizes; the deepest one is 4 feet 6 inches and another is 3 feet 6 inches deep. The DOT insists they're perfectly clean because they have filters built into them, and the dumpsters were made specifically for this project so they've never actually been used for trash (or as a source of freegan sustenance).
The three pools, designed by MacroSea, will be set up near the Grand Central viaduct, and free entry bracelets will be handed out for time slots on a first come, first served basis. The Pool hours are from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and they'll be open, with lifeguards, on each of the three Summer Streets Saturdays, starting this week. (Here's a map.)
Tagged
dumpster pool
summer streets
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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