The New York Times
Crotona Pool in the Bronx has become a new summer hotspot as neighborhood violence has waned, thanks to the help of unlikely volunteers – past and current gang members. Although the pool was heralded as one of the most remarkable public recreational facilities in the country when it was constructed in 1936, by the 1960s, the surrounding neighborhoods had become crime-ridden, and middle-class residents had moved away.
Eight years ago, Mike Bunce, 50, a parks department employee, called a few gang members to his office and told them: “This is your neighborhood. This is your pool.” The pool is now considered a neutral zone in an area long fractured by hostilities among the Bloods, the Crips and the Latin Kings, and a dozen or so young men drop in for a few hours each week to help keep order. July 21, http://www.nytimes.com.
