Kosciusko Pool

Despite being a pool lover and Bed-​Stuy resident, I avoided this pool for years, worrying that it would be poorly maintained and overly crowded. Wrong!
I went at noon on a Sunday and was shocked by how clean, huge and empty the pool was. It’s an Olympic-​sized pool (plus a separate wading pool), staffed by plenty of lifeguards and mostly attended by families and people with kids.
It does feel a little like a fascist régime getting into the pool (see list below), but once you’re in, it’s really nice. The staff are no-​nonsense but perfectly friendly.
If you’re hoping for an Upper East Side experience in BK, I hear you can spend $ 60 on a day pass to the McCarren hotel’s dinky rooftop pool. If you’re looking for a free, pleasant place to swim or lie out, this pool is your jam.
Bring: a lock for a locker, a swimsuit, towel, stuff to read, sunscreen.
You will have to lock your phone/​valuables/​anything other than what’s above in the locker — including your shoes and clothes. Only white t-​shirts are allowed on the pool deck/​in the pool.

I’ve heard horrible things about public pools in nyc. So since I’ve moved here, I’ve avoided them. Finally, I gave up the ghost because I’m a pool person. And I’m so glad I did! First off, it’s free. Can’t beat that. The pool itself is huge and has a lap lane area (which was what I wanted). Lifeguards are great, wasn’t over crowded and there’s a kiddie pool. Thumbs up and I’ll be back. Make sure you bring a lock for your stuff!

LAP SWIM HOURS REDUCED! SO SAD!
I love this pool. I swam there all last year, and really improved my endurance. I also had a really great time being outdoors instead of doing laps in a stuffy basement pool. However, I learned that THIS year, 2014, the lap swim hours have been cut drastically. They are now only from 11:00am — 2:45 pm, when they used to be all day long. All day is a bit much, sure, so I get having to make some cuts, but eliminating that many hours? I understand that there are budgetary issues at work here, and that employing enough lifeguards to cover such a large pool is costly. However (as a former lifeguard) I know that by shifting one or two guard stations, each area of the main pool could be covered adequately. I’m not sure why that can’t be done, and am super sad that I can’t swim laps as much this year.

(-) Dirty and crowded pool
(-) long lines
(-) ghetto people
Don’t waste your time just take a cold shower at home!

This is a great community pool. It’s free, it’s clean and it’s massive. A truly great neighborhood amenity for those hot summer days. There are only a handful of chairs, but if you hawkeye, one will become available eventually.

Real People

I live in Bedstuy right around the corner from this pool and I love having such a huge pool so close. The lines to get in do get a bit long but go quick. I wish you didn’t have to use a specific type of padlock but otherwise everything is nice and what you would expect from a community pool. I love the history associated with it and its so close.

The pool is huge and services a lot of people in the community. If you are swimming laps you will have a pleasant time as the lap lanes are usually empty. The rest of the pool is pretty rowdy. When I am with my kids I choose a small corner and let them frolic for a little while. The locker room is yucky. McCarren has the best locker room as it is more modern.

I was so excited to try this pool especially after reading the reviews.
In order to make sure I had no valuables and make life simple for myself I took the following items.
Swimsuit (wearing)
Swim trunks (wearing)
tank top (wearing)
flip flops (wearing)
towel
keys
goggles
swim cap
coin pouch w/​ID
I was sure I would be able to leave the items I wouldn’t be using to swim wrapped in my towel – hence no need for a locker. Just like I’ve done at all public pools and beaches throughout my entire life.
The lady checking people at the entrance let me in and said I didn’t need a lock. Right as I was about to shower to enter the pool, I was told that I had to lock up all items except for my towel and the items I would be wearing to swim in. I asked if I could just leave my items in a locker as I did not have anything valuable. I was informed that I needed to have a lock.
I had to leave. Thus I just wasted 30 minutes of my day walking to and from the pool. I am very disappointed.
This is absurd. I don’t understand why everything in NYC has to be so complicated. Everyone is not a criminal. NYC needs to get over itself.
I’m going to pay for a Y membership. I don’t need free when I’m going to be treated like Osama Bin Laden.

This is by far the worst public swimming experience I’ve had either indoors or outdoors in NYC’s network of pools.
Granted, it was a brutal high-​nineties day when I headed over at three-​something. First, I saw a cheery mural welcoming me to Kosciusko Pool, followed by high iron fencing and desolation beyond. I wondered if the pool had shut down, but my question was answered when I saw a line of inner city humanity pushed up against a concrete wall, trying desperately to avoid the heat in a one-​foot-​wide strip of shadow provided by the structure overhead.
Everyone expected pool cleaning to be from 3 to 4 p.m., but what they did not expect is for the afternoon re-​opening to be delayed for about 45 minutes with no real explanation as to why, let alone an apology. A gaggle of cops stood across the line, just sizzling in their dark uniforms, talking amongst themselves, offering no answers, and avoiding eye contact with the common people.
A little girl asked me why I wasn’t standing right up against the wall. She seemed really concerned about this. Confused, I found a kind way to tell her it was all right, and that I could stand the way I wanted to stand. Soon, I was to find out that I was wrong. NYC Parks staff members started walking down the eternal line, shouting about having locks, caps, and swimming diapers for babies, and telling us to get up against the wall. As if by reflex, the crowd flattened against the wall, leaving no space between sweating bodies in the sweltering heat. The little girl’s sweet little face was in my shwetty back, and my chest was creepily pressed up against the mildewy towel draped over the shoulders of a pre-​adolescent boy.
As the delay passed the half hour mark, people finally reverted to survival mode, deploying certain members of the family to purchase water. Others just complained, voices escalating with anger. I asked if this type of delay was a frequent occurence. «It’s ALWAYS like this,» a young girl bellowed.
When I finally reached the holy grail that was the ramp leading down to the basement locker rooms, I was pretty much frisked by two park attendants and perhaps a cop. Like a quarterback getting on the field, I ran through a tunnel. The tunnel was creepy, dirty in the corners, and had that cheesy reek of old chlorine mixed with miscellaneous filth. The lockers were similarly dank and dirty.
I finally reached the 200×100 foot pool and stopped dead in my tracks because I realized it was the only option, other than the somewhat elevated, obscured kiddie pool off in the distance which I knew would be even more stagnant than what I saw in front of me.
Everywhere, bodies brawled in the water, completely keyed up in their relief from the heat. Even from a distance, the water was visibly tainted. I almost chickened out. This is unlike me. I scolded myself and stalked over to a remote corner and stepped in.
Wearing goggles may have saved my eyes, but was a poor course of action for other reasons. As I breaststroked tentatively through the throngs of kids, I saw with great clarity the clots of phlegm, tangles of hair, dirt, and brown looking streaks moving through the uniformly brown-​green water. I gagged, and of course took in a nice mouthful of the concoction.
Unable to stop the thoughts of fecal matter, excretions, and dead skin cells that were undeniably and visibly present in the water, I jumped out in about five minutes, throwing up a little in my mouth. I showered until my skin stopped itching, threw my dress over my head, then ran out the way I’d run in, not even bothering to towel off since it was so hot outside. Some of the same people I’d seen in line were still standing there, looking quite hopeless as thunderclouds now threatened the horizon yet refused to provide respite from the heat.
A row of barricades blocked me from exiting. Keeping calm, I asked how to get out. Too lazy to speak, staff member merely pointed straight at the barricades, so I lifted it up myself and barged through, relishing its angry screech against the pavement. I left it open and kept running past the cops, past the mural, and down to the subway.
To literally wash myself of the experience, I made the trip to McCarren. Though I also had to wait there for about thirty minutes (it was just that hot of a day that all pools were at capacity), the experience confirmed by comparison that not all pools are created equal. But people are, and I wish I could go back and tell all those literally and figuratively poor kids back in the K-​line that they have alternatives.
My goal is to support the park pools. And I have a ton of respect for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. But quite frankly, this facility is the failed state of city pools, and I’m not sure one can blame it on security issues of overpopulation. I’d urge the curious to stay away from this pool, especially on hot days, and make some space to those who are trapped by circumstance or by location into resorting to it.

I’ve swum in about 6 different public pools for lap swimming and this one is the best. There are very few other lap swimmers and they let you swim laps whenever you want — no set schedule like all of the other pools. It is cleaner than all of the other pools I’ve been to. Now, we are talking public pool «clean», not country club clean or something. One must be realistic about their expectations, they have a lot of people going through this pool so considering that, I think they do a good job keeping it clean. The lifeguards are also attentive.

CLEAN AND FREE
I’ve passed this pool for 2 years, and never had any desire to go in. But now that the fascination for the pool has worn off others and it is calmer, i decided to pop in.
I was so happy, firstly it was free, how fab. There was very few people there on a Tuesday morning at 11 am. The locker rooms were clean, toilets. a lil gross not that bad. The pool area itself was really clean. My son had a ball he didn’t want to leave. And I just saw they offer free swimming classes! I will certainly be spending the rest of my summer at this pool it was great. But I’m not sure how I’ll deal with the crowds on week-​ends.
There are great swimming lanes for people that don’t have kids and want to swim laps, so I will be taking advantage of that soon too!

Since I moved to Bed-​Stuy I always wanted to try this pool, which is the closest outdoor pool to my place. This is a very popular pool: last time I checked it they were letting people in only when other people were leaving. Today, being a warm but overcast day, I finally got the opportunity to swim in this pool.
When I got there I was pleasantly surprised by the changing facilities: while most locker rooms at public pools look truly awful if not downright scary, the locker room at the Kosciusko pool is actually not bad at all, certainly above average. The lockers are brand new, and the showers and bathrooms are actually pretty clean. Once I’m done swimming at a public pool, I usually prefer to shower at home, but here I didn’t mind taking my shower at their facility.
This pool is big: 230′ x 100′ x 4′. Today there were never more than 3 others swimmers doing laps, which was great! The water is clean, and I counted 11 lifeguards working at any give time, plus 2 police officers (hey, this is Bed-​Stuy after all!). If you like to lounge on the side of the pool and bathe in the sun, keep in mind that there is only a limited number of chairs, about 10. There si also a pool for kids which is 42′ x 52′ x 1.5′.
Overall it was a real pleasure to swim in this pool. Too bad it’s open only until Labor Day!