Douglass and DeGraw Pool

This pool symbolizes what’s wrong with New York City. It’s overstaffed with a full time lifeguard despite being only 3 feet deep. Does not allow cell phones because of “child security”. Has about 10 employees standing around doing nothing yet it’s stil dirty. The taxpayer dollar waste is mind boggling. Its management should not only be fired but their salaries clawed back for deliberately wasting money.

I only rate this pool down 1 star because it is smaller and therefore more crowded than the other public pools in the area; I felt like I had to be extra cautious to keep my little safe and the big kids' play. Hopefully when Red Hook reopens that will take some of the pressure off. +1 for the baby pool!

The staff here goes above and beyond. The pool and surrounding area is clean and it’s family friendly. The changing facilities and bathrooms could use some TLC, but I want to visit everytime I am in the area with the kiddos.

Pool is free and clean, the two main things you usually look in a pool. This is handled by NYC Parks, so they are very strict with the rules and sometimes you can feel less like going to take a swim and more like you're signing up for the army, but as long as you get familiar with the rules (bring a lock, no phones on the pool, etc) you'll be fine. Went there on a Monday afternoon and the place had people but you were able to swim around easily. Taking up a star since I found some keys on the pool and gave them to a lifeguard, who seems like he couldn't care less. My wife told me later that they belonged to the woman next to her locker, and that they never turned the keys to the actual pool staff (blue shirt, as opposed to orange shirt), so they had to break the lock to get her stuff.

This seems like a pool that would suck, but it doesn't. Don't expect much from the locker rooms, but everything is clean, the staff is nice and attentive, and they give free lunches to the kids. A great public summer spot in Brooklyn.