LIKE DOROTHY FROM OZ

A thing to love about NYC is the availability of amazing outdoor activities during the summer months. The community goes out of its way to bring people out of their stifling apartments and into open spaces for outdoor concerts, movies, art fairs and festivals. About a week ago Nathan and I headed to one of these events. Death Cab for Cutie was playing at the McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Now, when I say it is a pool, it truly is. In 1984 the humungous community pool was drained. 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 unfortunately, the budgetary constraints of the City post-9/11 shelved the plan and the pool remained abandoned for the next few years. The pool and the surrounding areas were left to decay, until someone had the idea of using it as a band venue.

The setup is quite interesting - a stage sits in the deep end while all of the fans plant themselves inside the pool. The nature of the upward slope to the pool’s shallow end, give all a view of the stage. Pretty brilliant actually. The once turquoise pool bottom is cracking and peeling, and weeds attempt to make their way through the concrete. The brick walls surrounding the pool even appear to be crumbling. The McCarren Park Pool has become quite an eyesore to the community and apparently this will be the last year for concerts in the pool. In April, 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that reconstruction of the pool is being funded. Total budget has been announced as $50 Million. Design work is beginning in 2007, with construction slated to start by 2009.Someday soon the pool/park will again be a resource for the Brooklyn Community. Gentrification at its finest.

Nate and I arrived and found our spot on the pool bottom. We were just coming out of a ridiculous heat wave and the sun had been pounding the pavement for the majority of the day. We parked ourselves down and felt the heat permeate through our clothes from the cement, slightly burning out buns. We heard there was a chance of thunderstorms, but sat tight as the performance began. About six songs into the set, the singer commented on the lightening show that was happening behind us. We turned to see the sky crackling above us followed by loud claps of thunder. It was then that the wind picked up. Really picked up. Guarded by the walls of the pool we could not feel it, however when we looked beyond the surrounding brick walls we saw the trees bending and blowing wildly. Electricity was in the air, and the crowd began to panic.

The band exited the stage, saying it was not safe to continue playing, and the crowd began a mad rush for the single exit. Once past the brick walls, the streets were in chaos. People were running for the subway, the cars or their homes. Lightening was all around us and we had to put on our sunglasses to protect our eyes from the flying dust. Would we make it to subway before the down pour? I suddenly felt like Dorothy from Oz trying my to make my way to Auntie Em’s cellar. We descended the stairs to the safety of the subway just as the first drops began to fall. We’re not sure what to think about all this dramatic East Coast weather, but it keeps us on our toes. The next day in the paper there were claims of a small Brooklyn Tornado. Just another crazy night during the summer in NYC.