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McCarren Park's 'Hipster Lake' to Dry Up by Summer

By Meredith Hoffman | January 22, 2013 6:58am

WILLIAMSBURG — It's time to say goodbye to "Hipster Lake."

A $930,000 facelift designed to eliminate McCarren Park's giant puddle (known by park users as "Hipster Lake") has kicked off with a slated summer completion, city officials said.

The construction project, funded by Williamsburg Councilman Stephen Levin, includes renovating pathways to prevent flooding in the popular green space, a spokeswoman for the Parks Department said. The work concentrates on the section of the park between Bedford and Driggs avenues by North 12th Street.

"Council Member Levin has allocated a total of $930,000 for path work at McCarren Park," spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said. "The funding is intended to improve both entrances along North 12th Street and the Bedford Avenue/Lorimer Street entrance, as well as the deteriorated pathways that connect these entrances."

Portions of the park, including the North 12th Street entrance, have been fenced off this month as the renovations began. A representative for the Parks Department did not immediately comment on whether the section would remain closed until the project's completion.

But last year, local residents and staff of the North Brooklyn park group Open Space Alliance said the construction would be well worth the time and money.

Stephanie Thayer, the former executive director of the Open Space Alliance, told DNAinfo.com New York previously that a worker could spend up to a day sucking up water with an electric pump after rains. 

And OSA spent a few thousand dollars to have plumbers clear the drains in the park a few years ago, but they soon clogged again, Thayer had noted.

"Not so much as a gurgle is going down those drains," McCarren Park neighbor Meredith Chesney said last year.