Course Information
MHC 150.00 Section 906
Spring 2011
Tuesday: 1:10-3:40pm
McCarren Park
As a border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, one can learn a lot about the two neighborhoods by looking at the park. Here is a brief history:
McCarren Park as contemporary New Yorkers know it came into existence around 1910, when the city built “state-of-the-art athletic facilities, including a ¼-mile track, a field that was adapted for use as an ice rink in winter, tennis courts, a platform for dancing, play equipment for small children, and fields for baseball, football, and soccer.” And in 1914, the first children’s farm garden in Brooklyn was opened.
The most famous of McCarren Park’s amenities, though, is probably the McCarren Park Pool. Opened in the summer of 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, along with ten others. While the pool was closed in 1984, it opened as a concert space in 2005, and in 2008 the city began work on renovating it so that it could once again be used for its original purpose.
While for many years McCarren Park was relatively unused, and considered somewhat “dilapidated,” it was always something that the people of Williamsburg and Greenpoint could rally around, as something worth maintaining. One way in which the populations of Williamsburg and Greenpoint have made the park their own is by erecting statues of people who are considered heroes to the neighborhood’s people. For example, one well-known McCarren Park statue is that of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish Catholic priest who was martyred by the Communists. The presence of this statue obviously reflects the large Polish immigrant population in Greenpoint. McCarren Park is an excellent example of how a public space that is imposed on a neighborhood by outside forces can, over time, become a vital aspect of the community.
-Zoe Johnson
Response to Williamsburg/ Greenpoint Walk
I have been in and around Williamsburg and Greenpoint often because my dad teaches at the local high school. I was also familiar with tenant issues, as my father has some knowledge of land development and of issues going on in the area. What came as a complete shock to me (the biggest shock of the entire walk) was the fact that there had been (and still was) a huge oil spill directly under the neighborhood. All the buildings that are built and all the people that walk on the surface are actually right on top of gallons and gallons of spilt oil. I am shocked that I have never heard of this spill and that there is no mention of its current existence anywhere (such as local news). My main question of course would be, why not? Why is no one worried, why are the neighborhood’s tenants not at this moment rallying together to get the spill cleaned? This spill is quite Kafkaesque—even down to the nonchalance that our tour guide used when talking about the spill—it seems like no one cares, or at least, not enough to do anything about it.
Greenpoint/Williamsburg Walk Multimedia
Below are photos, video, and audio of the walk through Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
