When there were threats of closing the Douglas and DeGraw, I didn’t lament its passing because I thought the neighborhood around the pool was not necessarily where I wanted to take my children.  The pool has since been “saved” and my family and I  decided to take a dip this past weekend, and perhaps I would reevaluate my initial judgment.  It is a nice pool, the staff is friendly, the pool itself is very clean (can’t say as much for the bathroom and locker rooms, but they were passable), and it is not too crowded. But my initial assessment still stands, it is a dicey area.  We got there 20 minutes before the pool opens at 11AM, so we decided to kill some time at the playground next door.  There were no children at the playground but there were two gentlemen sleeping on benches, and a third standing nervously in the corner.  I couldn’t determine if he was waiting for his “business” day to start or end. And this was all in a PLAYGROUND!

Granted, after waiting on line for 20 minutes at the Red Hook pool, and finding no place to to swim much less sit, dealing with some local riff-raff outside the pool might not seem like such a bad deal for a little elbow room and comfort. None-the-less…

Nice pool. Crummy neighborhood.