Sleeping with the fishes has become a reality for the popular Bedford-Stuyvesant Aquarium. The tragic ending capped off a summer of excitement for all who found joy in the makeshift goldfish pond near Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue.
Local firefighters and workers with the Department of Environmental Protection came to inspect and fix the fire hydrant supplying water to the “pond,” and come Friday morning, crews had paved over the home of more than 100 fish, blindsiding local fans of the local attraction.
“This is what the city is wasting time and taxpayer money on,” one neighbor told Brooklyn Paper.
Another called the move a “huge travesty for the community,” claiming that the makeshift pond had drawn eager children and their families to the neighborhood to witness the wonder.
Earlier this summer, a handful of longtime local residents decided to turn the water-filled pit into a makeshift neighborhood goldfish pond, lovingly called the “Bed-Stuy Aquarium.” They shored up the pit, bought about 100 small goldfish, and dumped them in with colorful rocks and decorations.
Photos and videos of the makeshift pond started circulating online and in person, garnering equal amounts of praise and criticism — some argued that the local attraction was unsafe for its aquatic inhabitants. (It was unclear if organizers had properly outfitted the pond with a filter, heater, or any other equipment necessary to keep the goldfish alive.)
A department spokesperson said that the DEP had turned off the leaky hydrant “several times” since it found out about it, but people kept turning it back on — which prevented DEP crews from working in the area.
Still, the pond persevered. Organizers even started a GoFundMe to “help build a better habitat,” including “an outside ventilation system for them so they can survive through the seasons so the community can continue to enjoy the beauty of nature.”
And in the weeks that followed, locals decorated the surrounding area, even going as far as to place chairs and a bookshelf full of children’s books.
But now, Bed-Stuy’s Bikini Bottom is officially no more.
Neighbor Jackson Rogers said Friday that while he understands that everyone in the city has to follow the rules, exceptions should be made for “things that bring the community together,” such as the Bed-Stuy Aquarium.
“I don’t see the city making any initiatives,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “I don’t see the city doing anything for the community as a whole. And then the one time that people take it into their own hands, the city shuts it down immediately. I feel like if we had a government that cared about us, they probably would see a project like this and think, ‘Wow, this is so inspiring. This is amazing how these people come together.'”
And while it may “seem like a silly joke,” Rogers said, the Bed-Stuy Aquarium built bridges within the northern Brooklyn community.
“The way that it brought together people in the community — old Bed-Stuy people, new Bed-Stuy people — was the most unbelievable, beautiful thing that you’ve ever seen,” he said. “And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
“Yo, Bed-Stuy fish pond forever,” Rogers added, hopeful that the community spirit the pond drummed up will live on even in its absence.
Although the pond’s future remains unclear, a sign near what is now just a fire hydrant says the beloved Bed-Stuy Aquarium “will return soon.”
Additional reporting by Kirstyn Brendlen
