Abounding with a thick colored juice.
The Astoria Diving Pool is one of the nastiest holes in the ground you will find in New York City. Maintained by NYC Parks this huge toilet is terminally filled with thick, viscous sludge.
The diving pool appears to be abandoned, though it conspicuously abuts the wildly popular Astoria Pool at Astoria Park.
The filth of the diving pool sits in blunt contrast to the adjacent and immaculately maintained Astoria Pool. While one can assume that the city at least bombs this diving hole for West Nile Virus, mosquitos and other disease-transmitting pests I find it amazing that such an apparent disease-pit is allowed to fester so openly, so hideously, and in such close proximity to a public pool.
The diving pool could have been slated for renovation had New York been awarded the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. We did not get those Olympics, and after brief flurries of attention the city returned this diving pool to its place as a rotting footnote.
The Astoria diving pool does not seem to represent an income opportunity or a revenue stream for the city. Because of this I fear that something bad will have to happen before action would be taken to remove this standing water. A drug-fueled loner might have to break in to this lightly-secured area and dive from the platforms into the muck — crushing their head and causing severe injury — before attention would be turned to this obvious health and safety hazard. While none among us wish for such calamities to occur we do, nevertheless, see eyesores like the Astoria Diving Pool as a virtual invitation to such misfortunes.
