Leaking fire hydrants were a common sight the years I lived in New York City. Usually they rarely got more than a passing look, if that. Yet a fire hydrant in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn got a different life in the beginning of August that has seen a space the size of a square of sidewalk concrete turned into a popular draw for locals and travelers: the “Bed-Stuy Aquarium.”
Photo: ridge.x/TikTok
A Leaking Fire Hydrant in Brooklyn Is Now a Popular Attraction After Being Converted to a Fish Pond
@ridge.x this is easily the best thing to see in NYC @Passionfruit @Hajjmalik Lovick #brooklyn #nyc #aquarium #street #fish #mustsee #viral ♬ original sound – Ridgex
Hajj-Malik Lovick and Je-quan Irving created the Bed-Stuy Aquarium as a way to beautify a trash-filled tree pit on the corner of Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue that was flooded from a constantly flowing hydrant, local media site Hell Gate reported on August 8. They cleaned up the pit and then released a bag of goldfish from a nearby pet store into the cycling water to make a spot where people could find calm and feed and watch the fish.
It divided locals and people from afar. One person tried to “rescue” the goldfish early on, saying the water was too chlorinated and not large enough of a space. After she avoided confrontation with Lovick directly, she instead went to Reddit.
“I’m aware of the optics of this; uppity white transplant lecturing older Black man about his neighborhood,” the post reads, according to Hell Gate. “That being said, I’m still having a hard time with the animal cruelty of this…There’s no world where these fish survive much longer than a week.”
Other Reddit threads devolved into online arguments about animal rights, gentrification, fish needs, and what happens in the winter or when it rains and floods over. Later attempts to take the fish by the person who tried to remove them the first time were successful, which led to a neighborhood watch of sorts where people in the neighborhood took turns keeping an eye on the makeshift pond.
Still, in late August, a late-night vandalization killed some of the fish and damaged the set up, which had grown into a more traditional outdoor aquarium set up with plants, rocks, and decoration.
Once again, the Bed-Stuy Aquarium was rebuilt, this time with a couple thousand dollars raised through GoFundMe, which was also used for a backpack giveaway and fish adoption event over Labor Day weekend. The Bed-Stuy Aquarium is now more popular than ever. It’s even listed on Google Maps as a cultural landmark. Videos of the spot have racked up millions of likes on TikTok, and a dedicated Instagram page has 12,000 followers.
With colder weather coming, there are plans to relocate the fish indoors this fall until next spring, when it will again be rebuilt and filled, according to USA Today.
To see it for yourself before the season is officially over, head to 408 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216. 