BROOKLYN, NY — Just five days after the city cemented it over, the Bed-Stuy fish pond is swimming again.
The fish pond, located at the corner of Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue, has been moved to the tree pit directly next to its original fire hydrant.
Now, the homemade aquarium is outfitted with a solar-powered water filter, a heater, and a tile-lined in-ground tank, along with its growing collection of figurines, painted shells, fake plants and rocks.
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“We renewed it because the kids love it, the community loves it, and people around the world love it,” Hajj-Malik Lovick, the main organizer of the aquarium, told Patch. “We put it by the tree so that its in nobody’s way — we didn’t tear up nothing, we didn’t tear any of the roots out of the tree.”
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It all started this August when Lovick and two other friends added $15 worth of goldfish to a puddle beside a leaking fire hydrant.
The pond quickly accumulated a large fanbase, international media attention, and, with it, a website, a newsletter, a Google Maps listing, a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $3,500, an Instagram and a TikTok account with 24,000 followers.
But the problems began on Oct. 22, when the FDNY came to fix the leak in the fire hydrant that was providing a steady dribble of water to the three-inch deep pond. Once the water was shut off, dozens of goldfish died.
The next day, the organizers of the neighborhood curio dug the pond a foot deeper into the ground and lined it with a professional-grade pond lining so that the water didn’t need to be continuously running to sustain the fish.
But then, at dawn on Oct. 25, workers from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection came and filled the pond with cement in the name of “pedestrian safety,” a spokesperson told Patch.
“We’re looking forward to working with community members to find an appropriate alternative location for this impromptu gem, including in a community garden half a block away,” a Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson told Patch at the time.
The Department of Environmental Protection has not yet responded to a request to comment on whether this is still the plan now that the pond has popped back up.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Daddy Ramazani, a Bed-Stuy local, told Patch about the new pond set-up. “It’s an innovative and wholesome addition to the community.”
“Obviously, there are legal issues as to why this could be a problem, but the people organizing this have good intentions — there’s a lot of love here,” Benji Ramazani said.
This article may be updated.
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