Mayor Will Revisit Controversial Women-Only Swim Policy At Williamsburg Public Pool

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill De Blasio will reconsider expanding the Metropolitan Recreation Center’s controversial single-sex swim policy after an angry resident told him hundreds of women were no longer able to use its pool.

“You’ve raised information I did not know,” de Blasio told the woman at a town hall meeting Tuesday Night. “I’m going to go back and talk to people about what that means.

The Metropolitan Recreation Center at 261 Bedford Ave. had been hosting four women’s swim sessions a week for about 25 years when the policy came under scrutiny in 2016.

Local residents and advocates demanded the policy be cut because it imposed religious values on a public space — the sessions were used predominantly by Hasidic women whose religion prohibits them from swimming in front of men.

After the city’s Human Rights Commission conducted a review, the Parks Department attempted a compromise in October by cutting two of the four two-hour time slots devoted to women’s swim.

At the Borough Park town hall meeting on Tuesday night, one angry citizen — whom DNAinfo New York identified as Esther Weiss, 51 — told the mayor the compromise meant hundreds of women were left without any place to exercise.

“The pool is literally empty,” Weiss told Mayor de Blasio. “We love it, we need it back.”

Weiss came armed with an attendance tally that found usage dropped from around 100 swimmers to seven after the women's swim sessions were cut, she said.

“We need an appointment with our honorable mayor,” pleaded Weiss. “You are the one who has to make one phone call to Parks and Recreation and just say, ‘Yes, you can have back your hours.’”

De Blasio defended the new policy, stating he still believed it struck a fair balance, but admitted he was unaware of the impact it had on attendance.

The mayor did not promise to expand the women’s swim, but agreed to examine Weiss’ tally of the decreased pool attendance numbers and discuss it with his staff.

“I’m not going to commit to any change tonight,” de Blasio said. “I am concerned, however, about usage because that’s an important part of the equation.”

Image via Google Maps/Jan. 2013