#NYC #Williamsburg #McCarrenPark is a public park in #Brooklyn, #NewYorkCity. It is located on the border of #Williamsburg and #Greenpoint and is bordered by #NassauAvenue, #BayardStreet, #LorimerStreet and North #12thStreet. It is operated by the #NewYorkCity Department of Parks and Recreation.

Opened in 1906 and originally named #GreenpointPark, the park was renamed #McCarrenPark in 1909 after State Senator Patrick H. McCarren (1849–1909), who began work as a cooper at #Williamsburg sugar refineries and eventually became the Democratic boss of #Brooklyn. The park is a popular destination for recreational softball, volleyball, soccer, handball, and other games. It is also used for sunbathing and dog-walking. In late 2004, the park's track was resurfaced and has been a popular destination for running enthusiasts.

Events on the baseball fields of #McCarrenPark include members of the punk and indie communities gathering to participate in league-controlled kickball tournaments. For several years, the baseball fields have hosted tournament play for the Hasidim; weekend afternoons provide T-ball and softball games for organized area youth groups; Latino families and friends often utilize the fields to play soccer and volleyball into the late hours of the night. Since June 2003, #McCarrenPark has hosted SummerScreen in #McCarrenPark, and The Renegade Craft Fair, a DIY event. The fair attracts artists and creative types, featuring a wide range of merchandise such as reconstructed clothing, comic books, tote bags and other handmade goods.

#McCarrenPool was the eighth and largest of the eleven giant pools that were built by the Works Progress Administration to provide safe swimming facilities for all #NewYorkCity residents. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia attended the dedication on July 31, 1936. With an original capacity for 6800 swimmers, the pool served as the summertime social hub for #Greenpoint and #Williamsburg. The building's vast scale and dramatic arches, designed by Aymar Embury II, typify the generous and heroic spirit of New Deal architecture.

The pool was closed in 1984. It quickly became blighted, and covered in graffiti. The bathhouse buildings were broken into and extensively vandalized, until they were sealed up sometime around 1989. The pool was also used in a chase seen in the 1984 movie Vigilante.

The reuse and reconstruction of the pool remained a contentious community issue for many years, until the community came to a consensus plan in 2001. The community sought to reconstruct the facility to encompass a skate park, an indoor recreation/performance center, and a smaller pool that could be converted to a seasonal ice rink. The plan was estimated to cost $26 million and had a good chance of receiving public funding, but the budgetary constraints of the City in post-9/11 shelved the plan and the pool remained closed for the next few years.

In 2005, Clear Channel Entertainment gave $250,000 to the City Parks Foundation, a private non-profit entity, to do basic stabilization and safety improvements to the pool structure. The first public event in the pool, a dance performance called Agora, choreographed by Noemie Lafrance, was held by Sens Production that summer. In fall of the same year, the City Parks Department sought an entity to manage events on site for the summer of 2006. In the summer of 2006, a number of free and cheap public events were held at the pool, including the free SummerScreen film series, Jelly NYC's pool party series and the #Williamsburg Film Festival. That summer also saw Clear Channel Entertainment's concert-promotion arm, Live Nation, put on a series of six concerts that were ticketed for $45-$52 (including ticket service fees). By early 2007, the pool was again being used for concerts, film screenings and other events.

The park was substantially renovated in the 21st century, including its swimming pool and the restoration of a bath house and a recreation center:

In 2001 #McCarrenPark's ballfield was renovated at a cost of $560,000 and the handball and boccie courts were updated at a cost of $601,000. A $1.7 million project in 2006 renovated the park's well used running track and soccer field, and new lighting was added in 2008 at a cost of $1.1 million.

Meanwhile, as part of the 2005 rezoning of #Greenpoint and #Williamsburg, the City appropriated $1 million in capital budget funds for restoration of the pool as a performance space. Also, $300,000 was allocated by the #NewYorkCity Council in 2006 to support the construction of a seasonal rink.

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