The Brooklyn goldfish pond putting residents in hot water

A row that threatens to undermine neighbourhood cohesion has broken out in a trendy area of Brooklyn, with residents “in turmoil” over the fate of a group of goldfish.
The disagreement began when a group of life-long Bedford-Stuyvesant residents created a makeshift goldfish pond around a leaky fire hydrant, saying it was an attempt to build a sense of community in their area.
While the the pond has created a certain splash, putting the historically black New York neighbourhood on the map, it also drew the attention of city officials and animal rights activists.
Last week, a self-described “uppity” white woman who moved to the area four years ago launched a late-night raid to retrieve the goldfish, believing they were being treated inhumanely and would suffocate in their own waste.
“That’s when all of the turmoil started,” said Jequan Irving, 46, one of the pond’s architects.
The attempted recovery mission hit national headlines, becoming the latest flashpoint over issues of race and gentrification in New York City.
The so-called “Bed-Stuy Aquarium” sprang to life when a group of neighbourhood friends were lounging on the sidewalk in the hot August sunshine one afternoon pondering a small gravel tree pit that always seemed to be flooding. On a whim, they decided to purchase 100 goldfish for $16 from a nearby pet shop, placing the fish the 2in-deep pond.
The friends fortified the edges with stones and ensured that a trickle of water flowed continuously from the hydrant. They fed the goldfish three times a day and would take shifts watching over them.
As word got around, local residents started bringing seashells, painted rocks and trinkets to adorn the site. What began as a neighbourhood curiosity soon went viral on TikTok and Instagram, drawing hundreds of visitors from other parts of the city to see the goldfish.
That, residents say, is when the campaign to liberate the goldfish began. Emily Campbell, a 29-year-old who lives in an apartment on the same block, was sent a video of the goldfish over Instagram last week by a friend who was concerned about their welfare.
In a Reddit post, the self-proclaimed fish-lover described how she went to the site and offered to provide a fish tank and supplies to rehouse the goldfish, which she feared would perish due to a lack of shade, space and proper water filtration.
Campbell said her proposal was dismissed by one of the guardians of the goldfish, who accused her of trying to steal the fish during the heated confrontation. “I’m aware of the optics of this,” she wrote on Reddit. “Uppity white transplant lecturing (an) older black man about his neighbourhood.”
That night, however, she and a friend hatched a plan to return and complete the mission. Armed with nets and plastic bags, the pair scooped up 30 of the goldfish under the cover of darkness and placed them in tanks in her apartment.
Officials from New York’s department of environmental protection have visited the site several times to turn off the leaking hydrant and ask that the goldfish be removed. Beth DeFalco, the agency’s deputy commissioner for public affairs and communications, said damaged hydrants impacted water availability during fire emergencies and cut off water supply to homes. “We love goldfish also, but we know there is a better home for them than on a sidewalk,” she said.
Irving admitted that the group waits until the city officials have left before turning the hydrant back on to a trickle. “All it is is just fresh water coming out of the fire hydrant,” he said. “We have full access to it. We can turn it off, we can turn it on full blast if we want to.”
He claimed officers from the city’s fire department and police force had stopped to show their appreciation, and there was no danger of fire crews being left without water.
Irving and several friends had pulled up crates and folding chairs to monitor the area when The Times visited this week. A bright-yellow sign now warns would-be fishnappers to leave the fish alone and that the area is being monitored by closed-circuit television cameras. “You’re being watched,” the sign says.
On Wednesday morning, young mothers brought their toddlers to see the fish and a professional photographer had set up a tripod to try to capture the “perfect image” of the pond.
Shiori Green, a 25-year-old city planner who recently moved to the neighbourhood, said the fish had captured people’s imaginations. “America has a history of doing messed-up things in black communities, so I think there’s a lot of layers to this,” she said. “As a city planner, I’m intrigued by the fact that they seem to be tolerating it at the moment — they’re not shutting it down or anything. I think A, they’re too busy, and B, it’s positive.”
Irving insisted the project was helping to change the “aura” of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which had been neglected and unfairly maligned. He also noted that the goldfish were usually sold as food for larger species. “We are actually saving their lives, at least for a little longer,” he said.