On Demand
The Next Big Thing
-
Everything About a Pool
Next Big Thing host Dean Olsher weaves together a tale of many voices and one big pool. Which pool? A giant WPA-era pool in north Brooklyn. Everyone in the neighborhood, it seems, has a story to tell about the major public work that, for better and for worse, was built in their backyard – from Loretta Nunziata, who used to perform water ballet in the pool to Phyllis Yampolsky, who has made enemies on the pool’s behalf. The McCarren Park Pool hour was produced by Amanda Aronczyk and Emily Botein
View a slideshow of the McCarren Park Pool
A Pool for the Masses
In the 1930s, FDR created the Works Progress Administration in order to provide jobs while improving the country’s infrastructure. The WPA also helped fund all kinds of public art and architectural projects including new parks, new playgrounds and, in New York City, 11 giant swimming pools. All that spending to improve the quality of life for ordinary citizens? Imagine that – with the help of all these voices and sounds from the past…
It Was Our Hamptons
Comedian Alan King reminisces with host Dean Olsher about the pleasures and pains of spending hot summer days at the McCarren Park Pool.
Little Stars
Growing up in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, the stars in Leonard Suligowski’s galaxy were the girls who practiced water ballets at the McCarren Park Pool. Especially Loretta Nunziata, née Starr. Both Leonard and Loretta still live just blocks from the pool. So why don’t they ever run into each other?
The Experience of a Ruined Place
Today, the grand WPA pool looks nothing like it did in its heyday. In fact, from the outside, surrounded by barbed wire, it’s little more than an abandoned lot behind walls. How does this kind of abandonment affect those who live in its midst? Host Dean Olsher explores the pool ruins with Tony Hiss, author of The Experience of Place.
The People Who Live Here
The Brooklyn neighborhood that surrounds the McCarren Park Pool has been subject to waves of migrants and immigrants, while serving as a dumping ground for New York City’s unwanted industries and waste. Next Big Thing producer Amanda Aronczyk takes us on an audio tour through the neighborhood’s history and its different communities.
Message to the People: You’re on Your Own
The late 1970s were notoriously rough on New York City… blackouts, riots, soaring unemployment rates and mass exodus – for those who could afford to leave. What help was there for those left behind? Host Dean Olsher says the message from the government was loud and clear.
The Blame Game
Who’s to blame when one of a community’s greatest assets becomes its greatest failing? As WNYC reporter Marianne McCune discovers when she talks to residents and political leaders in the Greenpoint and Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, twenty years after the McCarren Park Pool closed down, there’s still plenty of blame to go around.
“Hey, I Grew Up in That Pool”
Community activist and singer/song-writer Steve Dansiger offers this protest song for pool lovers everywhere.
Nowhere Land
There are those who steer clear of the weed and grafitti-covered pool. There are those who don’t even know what it is, or was. And there are those who are drawn to it, like to an archaelogical ruin. Next Big Thing contributor Blue Chevigny follows them into the void.
Object Lessons
There are plenty of lessons to be found in the empty McCarren Park Pool… lessons about how communities work, about how shifts in government policy can change the life of a neighborhood. But as Tony Hiss puts it to host Dean Olsher, for those who live next door to them, object lessons tend to outlive their usefulness.
