The city has issued a call for proposals to turn the McCarren Park pool into an ice skating rink to operate annually from October to March.
mccarren park pool 1937 via nyc parks department
I got my hands on on the RFP, published two weeks ago, “for the development, operation, and maintenance of a seasonal ice rink at McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn, NY.” The city is accepting proposals until March 15th and the contract will be for twelve years.
The pool opened under Mayor La Guardia in July 1936 and operated until 1984, when the local government and residents decided against renovating the facility because, according to the Parks Department, it had started to attract vandals and drug dealers and had fallen too far into disrepair. The site re-opened in 2005 as a summer concert venue, which it remained until 2008 when the city announced plans to pump money into the project and make it usable for swimmers once again. Renovations began in 2009 and the new facility will include a recreation center, among other amenities.
We hear the guests are “super special” but still have no idea who will be closing out the summer. For now, we’re looking forward to Delorean! We’ll keep you posted on twitter.
Next week’s show is back on. Yahoo. As far as we know, today’s Chromeo show has not been canceled either. We’ll keep you posted. [via]
Five days after abruptly canceling the last installment of the Pool Parties concert series at East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, because the promoter of the shows had not paid its bills, the nonprofit group that helps administer the park has reinstated that show, which is set for next Sunday.
The Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn said on Sunday morning that Jelly NYC, the promoter, had paid most of the money it owed for use of the park, and that two adjacent businesses to the park — a small strip along the waterfront with striking views of Midtown Manhattan — chipped in to make up the difference. Those donors were Norman and Elaine Brodsky, who are among the owners of CitiStorage; and Douglaston Development, which is building the Edge, a large luxury apartment building.
“We are pleased that Jelly was able to meet most of its obligations,” said Steve Hindy, the alliance’s chairman and the president of Brooklyn Brewery.
For 5 seasons, Brooklyn has enjoyed their summers because of Jelly. We’ve laughed, danced, slip ‘n slided, made out, gotten rained out, and been beyond hammered in their honor and because of their hard work. We all knew the Pool Parties were coming to an end, but not like this:
We are saddened that we were not given the contractual 24-hour notice of the final cancellation so that we could prepare our partners and bands that have supported this series and were booked for this date. Instead, we were met with calls last night from press entities asking for statements on a press release issued by OSA lawyer and board member Adam Perlmutter only hours after The Open Space Alliance rejected our offer for the non-contractually laid out extraneous fees brought up throughout the course of this summer. [...]
We regret that we are not being allowed for the reasons outlined above to give Brooklyn the “thank you” we’ve been planning all year—our five year anniversary finale show. With all our planned special guests and unannounced surprises, it was sure to be a day no one would soon forget.
After the jump is Jelly’s statement in full about the abrupt ending of the series, along with final words to you for your continued support, as well as couple of checked facts mainly about how much OSA is the worst. Now it’s up to all of us to rage harder than we’ve ever raged before this Sunday, preferably in home made I <3 Jelly shirts. We’ll be there for the next chapter and we’re all excited to see what these awesome kids will come up with next summer. Until then, we’ve got Rock Yard to hold us over– which is filled with good vibes from the days of yore.
You’ll still be able to see Chromeo this weekend (we think) but due to financial disputes between Open Space Alliance (OSA) and JellyNYC the Delorean show scheduled for 8/29 ain’t gonna happen. Here’s what OSA has to say about the matter:
“We are deeply disappointed that the August 29th show has been canceled due to the continuing unmet financial obligations of the event’s promoter, Jelly. OSA can no longer cover both the costs of putting on these events—equipment, labor, and payments to the State for use of their park — and Jelly’s substantial debt. Our primary concern is improving open space in North Brooklyn, and we will not endanger our mission by putting the finances and reputation of our organization at risk by allowing Jelly to slide on its financial obligations.”
This of course sucks. The Pool Parties have become a Williamsburg tradition and we will hate to see them end. We’ll post Jelly’s side of the story as soon as we hear from them.
We all agree that the Pool Parties have become kind of a bummer. Ok, so they’re still pretty fun but seriously lacking that special Jelly flavor that was recently replaced by rules, regulations, and the fear that a slip ‘n slide is way too dangerous. That said, we’re on our way now because Future Islands are a band everyone should get into.
Also, the Nicky Digital hosted after party with Deluka should be pretty rad.
Seems like Jelly is digging back to their roots with Rock Yard, because we sure do miss the good old days when we were partying in the frying pan (a.k.a. McCarren Park Pool), Chuck Schumer didn’t care about the hipsters, and we didn’t have to go through turnstiles to buy a beer.
We’re also digging the collabo with Less Artists More Condos, and hoping the DIY feel keeps the party local… considering the lot hits max capacity at 800 people.
As usual, the shows are FREE. Oh and did we mention the official return of the Slip ‘n Slide!? Hells yes.
We’re still not sure why singer Jamie Stewart was folding his left wrist like that for the entire set, but Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof’s full rendition of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures was a pretty great way to start this summer’s Pool Parties. “She’s Lost Control” was the highlight (thanks for the video unartig) to a fun day in the sun. We were happy to see that Roberta’s and the Meat Hook were added as vendors. And left utterly perplexed by the fact that people seemed to enjoy the band Why? Why indeed! We’re already looking forward to next week’s lineup.
We’ve been investigating all week