2. Bathrooms at Astoria Park Dumped Sewage into the East River

Astoria Park has a dirty little secret. Since the 1930s, its bathrooms have been linking sewage into the East River. The discovery was made in 2016, when designers — tasked with designing the amphitheater, which will take over the site of the old diving pool — noticed that the sewage pipes from the pool and the Charybdis Playground bathrooms ran straight into the waterway, instead of connecting to city pipes. Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski stated that the builders of the pool are to blame, as environmental concerns weren’t a priority in the 1930’s.

Luckily, the issue has since been resolved: emergency work took place to repair the pool and a similar fix is taking place at the playground bathrooms. In addition, the pool’s dive tower is currently being restored, and a performance plaza is being built over the diving pool.