Earlier this year a giant murky puddle at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park was being affectionately referred to as “Hipster Lake.”
Nearly half a year and $930,000 later, Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents must say goodbye to the oft-flooded section of the park between Bedford and Driggs avenues.
The park reopened yesterday, with newly carved pathways, drains designed to stop the rampant flooding and dozens of new benches and plants taking their place — all one month earlier than planned, DNAinfo.com reported.
“It’s like the neighborhood was incomplete, and now everyone is back together,” Dan Levey, 30, told the news outlet.
North Brooklyn Councilman Stephen Levin announced the cash allocation in January and told DNA that the project’s completion was timed for McCarren’s “exponential use” in warm weather.
“For too long, the pathways of McCarren Park were notorious for being potholed, broken, and uneven,” he said. “They were a hazard to children and seniors, and an eyesore for the rest of the users of the park.”
Previously, park workers would spend “up to a day” pumping water out from Hipster Lake, Stephanie Thayer of the Open Space Alliance told DNA earlier this year, noting that her organization spent thousands to have plumbers clear the previous drains, only to have them clog again.
Hipsters rejoiced at the news, while hippies remained eerily silent:
