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Earlier this month it was announced that naming rights to certain locations around the city would be up for grabs to anyone with a few million bucks. Of course the city needs money, but is it right to strip away the history behind certain places? The Brooklyn Paper reports that there's some uproar over the re-naming of McCarren Park Pool, which might go on the block for $3 million, originally named for Senator Henry Patrick McCarren (D-Greenpoint). The Pool Aid folks have set up a petition, currently holding about 165 signatures, and the founder told the paper, “This is not a rootless community that just sprang up. We have a history, and we are seeing it just torn down before our eyes everyday. He is an important guy, he is a benefactor to this community, and he deserves to have his name on the institutions he worked to create." McCarren died in 1909, and you can learn more about his life and death in his New York Times obituary, as well as this Bowery Boys profile.
Renaming Pool: What Would Senator McCarren Do?
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It's the same media that NEVER mentioned Muslims' hatred of Israel as a possible motive for 9/11.
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Why isnt there a link to the petition...
Here's the petition WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD SIGN ... clickety:
http://www.petitiononline.com/poolaid3/petition.html
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poo-laid, lol
Dear Hipsters,
Maybe the recession hasn't hasn't affected you personally because your income consists of an ATM machine financed by mum and pop, but it has affected the city's tax coffers, which are essentially empty. The pool back at your folks' place in suburban Cleveland probably didn't require too much costly upkeep, but maintaining a massive public pool is a very expensive affair. If you want to continue to have it, please accept the fact that sticking a Pepsi logo on the pool will not kill you. And if it does, feel free to move back with mum and pop.
Thanks,
New Yorkers
the Brooklyn Paper specifically uses the word "rename" - that's more than just sticking a pepsi logo on the pool. that's part of stripping the pool, the people and the area of its history. there's no reason you can't have both - pepsi's mccarren park pool, for instance, as a compromise to the city's very real financial needs. i would hope that this is more in line with the city's intention.
it's so predictable at this point that any mention of williamsburg or greenpoint will get a knee-jerk "hipsters/parent's money/Cleveland" reaction. there is a large population of people who have lived in those areas for years and to just brush across the whole thing with a broad "whining hipsters" stroke completely ignores that community, their history there, and that they may actually prefer to keep some community identity.
i've lived in nyc my whole life. and my family ran businesses in williamsburg when brooklyn really meant brooklyn. ps, we don't have mum's here.
That is just stupid. Why not just rename the whole fucking city? It is bad enough that advertising is literally taking over our formally public spaces now you want to rename city landmarks with corporate bullshit? Methinks you are far from a 'real' New Yorker.
Sorry, you don't speak for all native New Yorkers. I was also born and raised here and half of my family is from Greenpoint (way back when it was Irish). I don't want the pool renamed, either. A logo is one thing - renaming is another. The city should use some of the money they made renting that concrete hole out for concerts instead of further erasing the history of the neighborhood.
Fair enough. You're right, not everyone in W'burg is a hipster. But why don't we calm down about the corporate hatred. If the city has a novel way to make money to pay for specific properties, so be it. Maybe naming a whole park would be over the top, but a pool, which is very expensive to operate, is fine with me.
The alternatives are: a. naming the pool (deal with some ads); b. charging admission (shut out all the poors); c. raising your taxes (already insane); d. closing the pool.
Which would you prefer?
Would the money from the naming directly benefit McCarren Park and the pool? Or would it be pooled into the Parks dept and vanish?
With every rename/rededication a bit of the old pre-war city including the Native American legacy disappears.
Yeah, history, whatever. How cool would it be if it became Sparks Pool??
Times change and I'm sure he wouldn't be such a dick as to insist that the pool bare his name.
Renaming sucks. How is it acceptable that there's now no ballpark recognizing the contributions of William Shea?
Who's that?
He was the lawyer responsible for bringing National League baseball back to NYC after the Giants and the Dodgers defected to the wrong coast.
American Apparel Pool at Massengill Douche Park.
hehehe
Sign the petition. People who have no past have no future.
It is especially offensive to name the pool for some dying corporate dinosaur because they donate funds which will simply vanish down the usual municipal ratholes. McCarren at least did something for Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
I'd think this is acceptable if all the funds from the renaming went directly to the renamed pool in question. But we all know that's never going to happen - it will just go into the same black hole as all the other money in this city.
We should not overwrite old names of places and institutions in New York. If they want to sell naming rights, put those on top of the old name or make a double name, like Marcus Garvey/Mount Morris Park in Harlem.
You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been.
I can't wait for the big Coca Cola sign to be put on (both sides) of the Brooklyn Bridge. That will really look great all lit up at night!
And that additional naming income means my taxes won't be raised. No? It doesn't? My taxes will still go up? Lovely!
ps - my Dad swam in that pool when he was a kid.
I wonder if the "we should not change the names of old places" camp would be silent if the suggestion was to rename it Barack Obama Pool.
@longacre--you're wrong on several counts. First, this isn't a hipster agenda. I'm a 44-year-old woman! People of all ages in the neighborhood care about the pool and about local history. I've gotten letters from people as far away as Minnesota who grew up here and who want the pool to keep its name.
Second, your "choices" about charging admission, raising taxes, or closing the pool don't apply. If you actually read our statement or any of the other information related to the situation you would know that the pool and its renovation are 100% paid for. By taxpayers. Not by a corporation. So the taxpayers should get to have the name we want.
Finally, it's not about corporate hatred. If a philanthropic company wants to give $3 million to build a dirtbike arena, or a public waterfront beach, or even an amphitheater so local groups can put on shows (not just rock shows--outdoor masses, ballet, school plays, etc), then that might be a valid reason to give them naming rights to what they have built. But to get naming rights while contributing nothing to the pool itself or to the neighborhood? No.
I realize many people participate in blog comments just to make assumptions and say negative things, but I wanted to give the real story.
Thanks Gothamist for the link!
Mikki/poolaid.
PS here is the petition link again: tinyurl.com/savepool