Cost of Club Swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think my question would be why doesn't all the high schools have swimming pools? I think all the public HS in DC has it

There are several, but it's not all public HS have them. Feels like it's more lower income areas other than JR (I think the pool is actually part of the connected rec center that's still named Wilson).

I don't think all lower-income areas have pools. Dunbar has a pool, and that area has changed big time. Ballou, Roosevelt, and H.D. Wilson have pools, too. They are all considered open to the public, but the school gets first dibs. I guess these are schools that got rebuilt. But since they are rebuilding Northwood, why didn't they put a pool in there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think my question would be why doesn't all the high schools have swimming pools? I think all the public HS in DC has it

There are several, but it's not all public HS have them. Feels like it's more lower income areas other than JR (I think the pool is actually part of the connected rec center that's still named Wilson).

I grew up in western NY and every high school has a pool. Even many middle schools had them. And swimming isn’t even a big sport there! I really don’t understand why our high schools don’t have them here.

The answer to all your questions is money.

Western NY towns have no where near the money as around here.

DP - it's a space thing as much as (more than?) a money thing. DH is from WNY and we go there often - they have SO much more space for pools than we do. Not comparable in the slightest.

I guess. There’s space there, but most MoCo high schools have space too if they wanted. Churchills campus is about 15 acres. Bigger than the HS I graduated from. They could get a 25-yard pool in there if they wanted.

Most MCPS high schools don't have near the campus size of those in WNY, much of which is very rural. The campus of DH's high school is 350+ acres! Given all the challenges MCPS faces, shelling out for swimming pools for their HS should be way, way down their list of priorities - said as the parent of three MCPS students, all club swimmers.

I'm also not convinced the issue is that high schools don't have pools. We need more and better public pools that allow access to multiple clubs, not just one.

[Anonymous]

Many school districts also aren’t county-based like they are in this area. While the budgets are higher, that would mean FCPS is maintaining, operating, and insuring pools in SO many high schools. Instead, they have the county rec center model that schools use. In other school district models, you’re talking about 1 or 2 high schools within a single district. That’s a very different scale. I’m not saying this is the primary reason, but it strikes me as an apples to oranges comparison of WNY schools to DMV (among the other factors already mentioned).

[Anonymous]

I also wonder (not really) about the total number of lanes here compared to WNY lol. Those are all 6-lane pools, whereas facilities here operate 10+ lane pools. Our population density it obviously much higher, but one pool here yields more lanes than a high school pool in WNY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think my question would be why doesn't all the high schools have swimming pools? I think all the public HS in DC has it

There are several, but it's not all public HS have them. Feels like it's more lower income areas other than JR (I think the pool is actually part of the connected rec center that's still named Wilson).

I grew up in western NY and every high school has a pool. Even many middle schools had them. And swimming isn’t even a big sport there! I really don’t understand why our high schools don’t have them here.

The answer to all your questions is money.

Western NY towns have no where near the money as around here.

1. It's not about having money, it's about paying for stuff. I have plenty of money to put a pool in my back yard. I don't want to pay for it -> I don't have a pool in my back yard.

2. Also, NY state taxes are about double those of VA and MD.

[Anonymous]

NY state taxes about double of MD state taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NY state taxes about double of MD state taxes?

NY state taxes go over 10%, but only for the highest of earners. For most people the rates are higher, but not a massive difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NY state taxes about double of MD state taxes?

NY state taxes go over 10%, but only for the highest of earners. For most people the rates are higher, but not a massive difference.

I can’t speak for MD, but my family in WNY (not highest of earners) pays significantly more property taxes than I do in NoVa on a property valued 1/3 the amount of mine here. (I’m sure our country has more tax revenue in aggregate given population.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pool space.

Let's build more pools in that empty office space!

+1. There is a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to other large metropolitan areas. It would be great if swim parents could help to advocate for more indoor pools. (Coming from the Midwest, we just had a ton more facilities than I find in the DMV, whether it be indoor pools or ice rinks.)

In some parts of the USA, where there is a warmer climate, outdoor pools are used year-round. And so that helps to keep costs down for them. But in the DMV, we need indoor pools for winter swimming (although I know some clubs do now use outdoor pools to some extent).

The problem with the DC area as compared to the Midwest, is that a large proportion of our population are shall we say "neotropicals" (not to be racist but here I am referring to what temperature ranges rather than skin color.) and are much more comfortable in warm weather and don't really view pools as a necessity to stay cool, hence pools aren't as popular as you might think. In addition, swimming is viewed as dangerous in places like Africa where snake bites are the leading cause of death, so there is a cultural barrier there. Layer on that the history of racial conflict over pools and the subsequent privatization with exclusive social clubs and Wahla! No public pools. I for one am also fine not paying taxes for the things, that are optimized by a few elites for their social club swim teams.

That being said, I don't understand why they don't have bubbles for the outdoor pools. I was at Richmond visiting relatives and they said their pool had a bubble for the winter. How hard is that to build? Doesn't have to be heated to a large degree. I was looking at it, and if a pool is ground source heated with heat pumps, they aren't that expensive to keep warm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pool space.

Let's build more pools in that empty office space!

+1. There is a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to other large metropolitan areas. It would be great if swim parents could help to advocate for more indoor pools. (Coming from the Midwest, we just had a ton more facilities than I find in the DMV, whether it be indoor pools or ice rinks.)

In some parts of the USA, where there is a warmer climate, outdoor pools are used year-round. And so that helps to keep costs down for them. But in the DMV, we need indoor pools for winter swimming (although I know some clubs do now use outdoor pools to some extent).

The problem with the DC area as compared to the Midwest, is that a large proportion of our population are shall we say "neotropicals" (not to be racist but here I am referring to what temperature ranges rather than skin color.) and are much more comfortable in warm weather and don't really view pools as a necessity to stay cool, hence pools aren't as popular as you might think. In addition, swimming is viewed as dangerous in places like Africa where snake bites are the leading cause of death, so there is a cultural barrier there. Layer on that the history of racial conflict over pools and the subsequent privatization with exclusive social clubs and Wahla! No public pools. I for one am also fine not paying taxes for the things, that are optimized by a few elites for their social club swim teams.

That being said, I don't understand why they don't have bubbles for the outdoor pools. I was at Richmond visiting relatives and they said their pool had a bubble for the winter. How hard is that to build? Doesn't have to be heated to a large degree. I was looking at it, and if a pool is ground source heated with heat pumps, they aren't that expensive to keep warm.

https://www.heroxairdomes.com/blog/swimming-domes

I seriously think the swim caps are too tight in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the bubble pools have gotten better, but I used to go to one for a meet in NJ every winter and it was still so cold in there. Maybe ok for practice but awful for hanging out between events. It just felt kind of gross too… even more gross than a hot and humid truly indoor pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the bubble pools have gotten better, but I used to go to one for a meet in NJ every winter and it was still so cold in there. Maybe ok for practice but awful for hanging out between events. It just felt kind of gross too… even more gross than a hot and humid truly indoor pool.

I know what you mean, I checked out the bubbles around the Germantown sportsplex that have tennis. They do have a weird claustrophobic vibe. Though I must say I went to a private pool, and I feel noticeably better than swimming in the RSFC "pea soup" this time of year. Like at RSFC I always had a runny nose, and the pool had noticeable amounts of snot floating in it that wasn't mine. Way too crowded, and I haven't gone since KSAC closed.

I think it's colder in NJ. People are swimming in outdoor pools here anyway. Why not put a cover on one? I filled out the estimate, it would be like a fraction of the cost of building a whole new aquatic center, 150K for a dome, you could fire a swim coach or two to pay for it.