NEW YORK—Several dozen people rushed the gates of Robinson pool as parks staff and police attempted to hold back the crowd on Tuesday. The huge swimming pool at the Jackie Robinson Recreation Center on Bradhurst Avenue in West Harlem is a haven of comfort on record breaking hot summer days like Tuesday’s 103 degree scorcher. But that haven was blocked to many locals Tuesday afternoon when they showed up hoping to cool off and were denied access by Parks employees.
Several hundred people were kept waiting outside and made to stand in crowded quarters behind police barricades, left puzzled by not being allowed entry. Approaching the park from the pool’s south side revealed that that pool was not crowded. A placard on the wall outside the recreation center lists a capacity of 770 people, but looking into the pool from a gate on the south end showed there were only about 100-200 people in the pool.
Several different employees from the Department of Parks and Recreation spoke to the crowd at different times, sometimes using a megaphone, other times trying to shout information to the growing, if patient, crowd. They gave different reasons for not letting people enter the pool. Initially they said there was not enough security, and that the police were late in getting to the pool. They also said the pool was at capacity, that there were no lockers, and also that were not enough life guards to allow more people into the pool.
The recreation center supervisor refused to speak to the press.
Michelle Hamilton, a nurse, lives on 146th St. and has lived in the area her whole life. She brought her son to the pool and was astonished by the situation. “I can’t believe they are doing this during a heatwave, I feel they are creating a very dangerous situation,” said Hamilton.
She said the same thing had happened on Monday.
Several observers reported that one Parks Dept. employee was terminated on the spot for allowing friends or relatives into the pool. At about 5:20pm an employee of the pool announced on a megaphone that the pool would not allow anyone else in for the day. As she told her colleagues to shut the doors to the recreation center, the crowd made a rush for the doors and about 50 people forced their way in as police attempted to keep children safe. The employees were able to force the doors closed and kept everyone else out.
A call to the Department of Parks and Recreation was not returned before this story went to print.
Several hundred people were kept waiting outside and made to stand in crowded quarters behind police barricades, left puzzled by not being allowed entry. Approaching the park from the pool’s south side revealed that that pool was not crowded. A placard on the wall outside the recreation center lists a capacity of 770 people, but looking into the pool from a gate on the south end showed there were only about 100-200 people in the pool.
Several different employees from the Department of Parks and Recreation spoke to the crowd at different times, sometimes using a megaphone, other times trying to shout information to the growing, if patient, crowd. They gave different reasons for not letting people enter the pool. Initially they said there was not enough security, and that the police were late in getting to the pool. They also said the pool was at capacity, that there were no lockers, and also that were not enough life guards to allow more people into the pool.
The recreation center supervisor refused to speak to the press.
Michelle Hamilton, a nurse, lives on 146th St. and has lived in the area her whole life. She brought her son to the pool and was astonished by the situation. “I can’t believe they are doing this during a heatwave, I feel they are creating a very dangerous situation,” said Hamilton.
She said the same thing had happened on Monday.
Several observers reported that one Parks Dept. employee was terminated on the spot for allowing friends or relatives into the pool. At about 5:20pm an employee of the pool announced on a megaphone that the pool would not allow anyone else in for the day. As she told her colleagues to shut the doors to the recreation center, the crowd made a rush for the doors and about 50 people forced their way in as police attempted to keep children safe. The employees were able to force the doors closed and kept everyone else out.
A call to the Department of Parks and Recreation was not returned before this story went to print.
