The obvious solution (Katie Sokoler/Gothamist) more ›

Police say that two city workers were wounded yesterday around noon when a man opened fire at a Brooklyn pool. One male NYC Housing Authority employee was shot in the torso, while a female NYCHA employee was shot in the leg Howard Houses in East New York. "A young fool and his gun ruined a day for some poor kids. It’s a shame," said local resident Jocko Lindley. more ›

An 11-year-old boy was "completely blue and unresponsive" when a nurse saw him by a Staten Island YMCA pool, so she told lifeguards, "I am a nurse, I know CPR," and was able to help revive him after two minutes. Pamela Glennon told the Advance, "His color came back immediately." more ›

There are some things, when you move to New York, that you give up hope for: silence, dignity, and indoor pools, to name a few. But not everyone has! Some people, very rich people with names like Evelyn McMurray Van-Zeller, have been making at least one of those dreams a reality, what with the 30-foot pool in the middle of her Chelsea living room. And it too can be yours, for the small price of $10.955 million. more ›

[UPDATED BELOW] This may look more Boca than one of the 5 boroughs, but this photo was taken in Brooklyn—can you guess which year, and what neighborhood? more ›

Not too long ago New York City was talking about officially adopting the Gotham City nickname—and while there are plenty of things tying Gotham to NYC, Chicago has also tried to stake claim on the name (director Christopher Nolan even said he used Chicago as inspiration for his Gotham). Well, now an Illinois couple is trying to bring Wayne Manor to the 'burbs... or at least they were 20 years ago when they painted this Batman logo in their pool for their Gotham-obsessed son. more ›

A 21-year-old college student from Brooklyn drowned in a friend's pool in Plainview, Long Island. Nelson Cole was found lifeless in the deep end of friend Jeffrey Soto's parents' backyard pool around 4:16 a.m. yesterday. His friends pulled him out and performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead almost an hour later at North Shore Plainview Hospital. His mother Debra Bramlett, who said her son knew how to swim, told the Daily News, "It's the call no parent ever wants to hear, that ring at 5 in the morning." more ›

Everyone loves a nice, cool dip in the water on sweltering summer days, but unless you have the luxury of having a private pool in your building—or rich friends in the suburbs—your options are pretty limited. You can schlep out to the beaches to freeze yourself in the Atlantic, or brave the unsanitary nightmare that is a public pool. But some hotels are wising up, and are letting outsiders enjoy the luxuries of summertime swims...for a fee. more ›

A three-year-old child and a woman taking care of her drowned in the backyard pool of a Lawrence home. According to Newsday, toddler Naama Markovits was pronounced dead at a Far Rockaway hospital while nanny Lorena Canales-Mejia, 32, of Inwood, had been on a ventilator at the hospital but died during the night. more ›

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is bringing out the big guns Sunday morning to protest the city's closure of the "Double-D" public pool in Gowanus because of budget constraints. Joined by protesters and city council members, Markowitz will appear at the pool in broad daylight wearing nothing but a swim suit, presumably as a form of radical direct action protest. His press officer says, "Don’t worry, no Speedo!" But if the city doesn't agree to spend the $200,000 to open the pool—which is in walking distance to the Gowanus and Wyckoff Gardens public housing projects—we suspect Markowitz will surely take this thing to the next level. Please, Bloomberg, give the man whatever he wants. more ›

As McCarren Park Pool undergoes a $50MM renovation to become, well, a pool again... the LTV Squad has been taking a look back all week at what it was like during the years it sat there being drained of its former glory. Yep, while you were all enjoying your Pool Parties there was a hidden world underneath the concrete—most notably, a tunnel system starting under the main arch. The LTV Squad was kind enough to let us use some of their photos, but be sure to check out their massive catalog here—and below is some video of what it's like in those underground tunnels. more ›

A 14-month-old boy was pulled from his family's Staten Island pool in cardiac arrest yesterday afternoon. WABC 7 reports that little Vincent Fougere " found by his parents floating in the pool wearing only his diaper." Luckily, the local firehouse was nearby and a neighbor, who heard the screaming parents, ran over there for help. more ›

The man who jumped to his death yesterday morning off Le Parker Meridien on West 56th Street was Brian Fiore. The 39-year-old was a former employee of Salomon Brothers, and used to be a member at the hotel's Gravity Fitness Center. more ›

In order to keep off the shut-down list, Harlem public schools are using marketing and PR to attract new charges. The principal of PS 125 keeps brochures in her purse, painted her minivan to transform it into a mobile advertisement, and leads tours where she extols the virtues of her institution, especially its functioning pool. Her zealous efforts are quickly becoming a necessity, since competing charter schools—some of which spend $90 per recruit—employ top-dollar marketing firms to promote their good image. The Harlem Success Academy spent $325,000 on a campaign to attract students to four charter schools last year, reports the Times. That’s a lot more than the $500 worth of fliers run off by most city public schools, but you can't put a price on Success. more ›

With a $4.9 billion budget gap looming, city departments face budget cuts across the board, and the Parks Department is no exception. Mayor Bloomberg's $63.6 billion preliminary spending plan for the next fiscal year anticipates the Parks Department's budget shrinking by 9.4 percent, to $239.1 million, the Post reports. There's talk of staff cuts of up to 20 percent, from 3,722 to 2,974, and four of the city's 54 outdoor pools are set to close. The pool season will also be shortened by two weeks, saving the city $1.4 million. Naturally, Geoffrey Croft at NYC Park Advocates is pissed. more ›

Gov. Paterson should be investigated for possibly misusing $1,800 in campaign funds at a Florida Ritz Carlton, a good government group alleges. According to the Daily News, the New York Public Interest Research Group wants the Board of Elections to study campaign credit card charges made at the resort in 2008 and determine if they were "personal in nature and not appropriately expensed to the campaign." In a long-awaited Times story on Paterson's purported laziness, the Governor said he went to Florida to meet with possible campaign donors, but added: "I have a cousin who's ill in Sarasota. I went down to see my cousin." He also said he spent time poolside, and noted it "was kind of vacation-oriented." more ›

Cops released positive new statistics for Williamsburg gun crime—the number of shootings in 2009 was about half of the previous year's count. According to the Daily Courier ten people were shot in 2009, that's eleven fewer than in than the 21 gun victims in 2008, a 52.4 percent decrease for the Bedford Avenue belt. Those are good stats, but is 2010 bucking the trend already? more ›

A 49-year-old has been charged with murder for drunkenly shooting and killing another man in a pool hall in Williamsburg on Saturday. Mauro Lopez was cuffed just after the shooting, which broke out in a billiards room behind Maria's Grocery on Broadway at around 4 pm, according to the Daily News. more ›

A man was shot and killed after a dispute in a backroom pool hall in Williamsburg on Saturday. The victim — whose name has not yet been released — was shot in the chest just before 4 pm in a billiards room behind a Broadway bodega, reportedly by his drunken uncle. more ›

This morning Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz held court at McCarren Park Pool for a groundbreaking ceremony. Over the past few years the pool has come back to life with JellyNYC's concerts (now still in search of a new home with help from Senator Schumer) — but soon it will return to being a community pool, thanks to Bloomberg's $50 million PlaNYC renovation. Today he promised he'd be the first to take a dip when the project is done, but so did Marty. Who will make the first splash?! We'll have to wait til 2011 to find out... more ›

The papers have picked up on the dumpster diving story and it turns out the location of the pool is in Gowanus. The address was actually decoded after this video on the project hit the internet last week, meaning people have been coming by and trying to sneak a peak at the private pools. more ›

Hipsters: make yourselves useful. The hipsters in London are doing way cooler things than you and to be honest, it's quite embarrassing. Look at these dumpster conversions: pools, gardens, ping pong tables, stages, skateboarding ramps... you name it. more ›

So it looks like detectives' theory that an ex-cop's bank robbery "appears to be economically motivated" is right on the money. Retired NYPD sergeant Thomas Feeney, who was arrested just minutes after robbing a Long Island bank at gunpoint Tuesday, is in major debt because of an ambitious landscaping project on the grounds of his Smithtown, LI, home, which included a new lining for his swimming pool. A neighbor tells the Post, in an article headlined "Poolhardy Choices By Heist Cop," that the pool upgrade was "a luxury item, so it didn't look like he was having any money problems." But an associate of Feeney blames his financial woes on his ex-wife, saying she "cleaned him out" after their divorce. And now she's going to try and get full custody of their daughters, which sucks for them, because their dad was probably just about to open the pool for the summer. Suffolk County Detective Sgt. Robert Doyle says Feeney's credit card debt is "well over $100,000." more ›

Everyone is abuzz about the new renderings of McCarren Park Pool unveiled at the CB1 meeting last night, except they look exactly the same as the ones unveiled a year ago! Okay, close your eyes and picture McCarren Park Pool...now add some aquamarine-toned blue water courtesy of your mind's Photoshop, and that's pretty much what it's going to look like (for the imaginationally challenged, this is also represented in the rendering above). more ›