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Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced late last week that after a decade of talks, the floating pool that’s shaped like a plus sign will open to the public on one of the city’s waterways in 2025.
A “demonstration” of the self-filtering pool will debut this summer in the East River for a testing period. If successful, it will be accessible by all the year after.
“As part of my new NY SWIMS initiative—the Statewide Investment in Municipal Swimming—I’m proud to partner with Mayor Adams to advance a long-stalled, innovative floating pool concept: the +Pool,” said Governor Hochul in an official statement.
As mentioned by the politician, this is the state’s latest effort to expand access to pools to all citizens and teach everyone how to swim.
In September, for example, the New York City Council passed a comprehensive legislative package aimed at improving water safety programs across the city while also expanding access to public pools. As part of the new laws, the city will now officially offer second graders free swimming lessons.
As reported by NBC, if approved by state lawmakers, a new $60 million grant program would also "build 10 new pools in underserved communities, and an additional $30 million would pay for pop-up pools during heat waves."
But back to +Pool: funding-wise, the project will benefit from both existing grants (the state has pledged $12 million already) and a $4 million backing by the city, as announced by the Mayor.
As for the location of the 9,000-square-foot water destination, it has yet to be announced, but we have our eye on the Lower East Side waterfront just north of the Manhattan Bridge, which is where, back in 2021, the organization behind the pool secured a "confirmation to proceed with due diligence" by officials.
Soon, we’ll see this giant, floating swimming pool in the East River!