Why America stopped building public pools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re expensive to build, staff, and maintain. And even daily admission to the public pool is getting $$$ these days. I looked up the pool cost for a daily pass at the public pool in the suburb where I grew up in the Midwest and it’s up to $14/day, now you do get a free kids admission with an adult, so a parent and a kid could go for $14. And that’s only available during the week. Weekends are only for season pass holders and the cost is $215 for a family. Definitely not cheap if you’re on a lower income. Seniors do pay less.

+1 The other huge problem is liability. In today's world, too many parents/guardians/nannies/babysitters are looking at their cell phones and not keeping an eye on their kids.

Against a municipality? LOL, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really sad and is a obvious example of structural racism

It has nothing to do with structural racism. It has to do with the high cost of insurance and expenses to build and ROI. You wanted minimum wage: now multiply that across many lifeguards. Labor is always the most expensive component of any business.

Some gyms have dropped them because they kill their bottom line. Do you go to work to lose money?

Have you ever heard of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

[Anonymous]

Here's an article for those of you who think this happened organically and in a race-neutral manner:

https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/

"Public pools used to be everywhere in America. Then racism shut them down."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's an article for those of you who think this happened organically and in a race-neutral manner:

https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/

"Public pools used to be everywhere in America. Then racism shut them down."

This is really eye opening. What I think is, all cis het white men should go to the public pool to *watch* and *listen.* Watch those working class women at the pool, and see the joy on their faces as they slip into the water and *finally* get *representation.* Then, meet with your friends to discuss what you learned, and how you can do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Temperatures like this have happened on the planet before and even while our human ancestors were around. Global temperatures have only been tracked since about 1880. So not a long historical record.

This means you are anti science. Obviously.

No quite the contrary, fact is earth has been warmer and of course cooler. The earth’s climate is not static, so climate change is real. Is a warming trend occurring yes. Does the chart represent the highest temperatures since 1880, yes. Is it the highest temperature when modern man has been on earth, no.

Scientific fact, so accept it or live in your delusional world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Temperatures like this have happened on the planet before and even while our human ancestors were around. Global temperatures have only been tracked since about 1880. So not a long historical record.

This means you are anti science. Obviously.

No quite the contrary, fact is earth has been warmer and of course cooler. The earth’s climate is not static, so climate change is real. Is a warming trend occurring yes. Does the chart represent the highest temperatures since 1880, yes. Is it the highest temperature when modern man has been on earth, no.

Scientific fact, so accept it or live in your delusional world.

The only people figuring out how to be worried about all this aren't actually going outside in this heat anyways. They are busy reading the internet figuring out how to be outraged. Twisting their mustache thinking of their superior intellect gained by reading "scientific investigation" into a topic in the air conditioning.

Meanwhile, I was back home in Florida this weekend and did my long run in actual heat for just under 2 hours. It was horrendous, but I survived. I then burned a bunch of hydrocarbons with other allegedly privileged people back up here, with a bike in the belly of the plane. I actually road a bike nearly 1/2 the distance I drove last year, even with road trips. I fuel myself with a ton of plants too. You can do all these things and realize that climate change alarmism is just that. You can even vote for republicans. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Given the recent heat way, I found this article shocking. The DMV seems a prime example of this trend.

"Yet just as public pools become more important than ever, they’re disappearing from sight.Pools have become harder to find for Americans who lack a pool in their backyard, can’t afford a country club, or don’t have a local YMCA. A legacy of segregation, the privatization of pools, and starved public recreation budgets have led to the decline of public places to swim in many cities.“If the public pool isn’t available and open, you don’t swim,” Sutton said."


https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/22/business/publi...reme-heat/index.html

This has been known (and goes back) for years. Just look at the NVSL (Northern Virginia Swim League). It is all private pools. Fairfax County has put in public rec centers with pools so there is that (and a few YMCAs). But in general there are not enough public recreation facilities (including parks and playing fields for sports).

"But in general there are not enough public recreation facilities (including parks and playing fields for sports)"

Based on what? It seems to me most parks I see are empty most of the time.

[Anonymous]

I think in the DMV and in areas that are highly populated, the cost is too high. It's similar to the reason why low income housing isn't built like it used to be, because the land, labor, materials, maintenance, staffing costs have all gone through the roof.

I deplore to racism and know that it exists everywhere, but there are also a lot of kind, decent people everywhere too. They don't get their due appreciation in any way as much as the racists get pummeled everywhere. I just don't believe racism is the issue in this case.

The economics are different today. Land is scarce and these projects have to compete against projects with better economic profiles. It used to be that there was plenty of empty land in communities and marginally profitable recreational facilities made sense. Not today.

I also believe that there are basic human rights that everyone should be entitled to. Housing, food, education, health care are included within what I consider basic human rights. Golf, tennis and swimming are what I consider country club sports. I don't consider being able to engage in country club sports a basic human right. Your thoughts may differ.

[Anonymous]

If I had an extra public $ to invest, I would place it in housing subsidies for the elderly, low-income, homeless or maybe in food banks rather than in building a public pool or golf course.

That's not racism. It is a sober assessment of where public funds are most needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re expensive to build, staff, and maintain. And even daily admission to the public pool is getting $$$ these days. I looked up the pool cost for a daily pass at the public pool in the suburb where I grew up in the Midwest and it’s up to $14/day, now you do get a free kids admission with an adult, so a parent and a kid could go for $14. And that’s only available during the week. Weekends are only for season pass holders and the cost is $215 for a family. Definitely not cheap if you’re on a lower income. Seniors do pay less.

+1 The other huge problem is liability. In today's world, too many parents/guardians/nannies/babysitters are looking at their cell phones and not keeping an eye on their kids.

Against a municipality? LOL, no.

It's much much harder, yes. But if a lifeguarding company is found negligent or the fence wasn't secured properly, safety warnings weren't up, etc. , there can be damages paid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I had an extra public $ to invest, I would place it in housing subsidies for the elderly, low-income, homeless or maybe in food banks rather than in building a public pool or golf course.

That's not racism. It is a sober assessment of where public funds are most needed.

We should be doing housing, food banks, libraries, and public pools. The latter keeps kids off street, helps during heat waves, and teaches a valuable skill, swimming, that can help ward off tragic drowning incidents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had an extra public $ to invest, I would place it in housing subsidies for the elderly, low-income, homeless or maybe in food banks rather than in building a public pool or golf course.

That's not racism. It is a sober assessment of where public funds are most needed.

We should be doing housing, food banks, libraries, and public pools. The latter keeps kids off street, helps during heat waves, and teaches a valuable skill, swimming, that can help ward off tragic drowning incidents.

Who needs a pool in a heat wave? You can’t sit in a pool all day. Of all the things that help people safely function in heat I can’t see a pool as one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a town in NJ that was mostly white and there weren’t any community pools. First time I ever heard of such a thing was when I moved to VA. Nobody cared at all. Why would there be shared pools?

Same experience in NY. It wasn’t as hot as VA but there wasn’t the obsessive pool and swim culture. When my kids were younger, we didn’t belong to a pool because of wait lists. We went to the rec centers, the Watermine and spray parks. There were plenty of public options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I grew up in a town in NJ that was mostly white and there weren’t any community pools. First time I ever heard of such a thing was when I moved to VA. Nobody cared at all. Why would there be shared pools?

Where did people swim? Where did they learn to swim? Did the schools have swim teams? If so, did the swim teams "share the pool"? How does that work?

NY poster here. I didn’t know anyone on a swim team and don’t know if high schools had them. Swimming lessons were not a priority, certainly not proper strokes. I can do a basic doggy paddle. We swam if we ever went on vacation to a lake or a place with a pool. The local Y had a pool but I don’t remember taking lessons. To this day, my father in his 70s can’t swim. Also, I never heard of beach week for teens until moving here.

[Anonymous]

DC Parks & Recs is building a new public pool at Walter Reed? Maybe more of a M and V problem. DC has limited land but I feel like Wards just have to get the requests heard. I personally hate indoor pools so I don’t go to DC pools.