Why America stopped building public pools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Pools inspect their water several times a day. There is nothing cleaner about private pool water.


I did not say it was cleaner. I'm saying public pools are often more crowded. Yes, pools should have staff to check the water several times a day. Do you honestly think they do in every community that has public pools?

Do you have proof that they don't?
My experience has been that the people who use the pool are watching everything the lifeguards do. One of their jobs is to test the water (and we see them doing it every hour at the public pool I frequent). They have the test tubes out. It's not that hard to do. People do complain if they see things that are not done right. I don't know about EVERY community, but they are excellent in my community. We pay for that and we d*#%n well are watching.

[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?

So did I - grew up in Bergen County. Our town had a public pool, as did most of the towns in the county. Some had man-made lakes instead of pools. But by and large, most of Bergen’s many townships and boroughs had their own outdoor swimming facility, whether pool or lake. In most if not all cases you had to be a resident of the town to use the town’s pool. We also lived near a county park that had a man made lake, so any resident of the county could swim there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1132168.page

Wow, pg pool is terrible

I’d love to pee in this pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Pools inspect their water several times a day. There is nothing cleaner about private pool water.


I did not say it was cleaner. I'm saying public pools are often more crowded. Yes, pools should have staff to check the water several times a day. Do you honestly think they do in every community that has public pools?

Do you have proof that they don't?
My experience has been that the people who use the pool are watching everything the lifeguards do. One of their jobs is to test the water (and we see them doing it every hour at the public pool I frequent). They have the test tubes out. It's not that hard to do. People do complain if they see things that are not done right. I don't know about EVERY community, but they are excellent in my community. We pay for that and we d*#%n well are watching.

PP here. I grew up in an area with public pools that are truly very clean, probably similar to what you described. I was also an apt mgr for awhile and responsible for keeping the pool water sparkling. I've also seen some gross pools with slime on tiles...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a town that was almost 100% white and there was no public pool. Not everything is about racism.

What kind of white?

Was this in the north east? South? Midwest?

"It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white. So long as it catches mice, it is a good cat." - Deng Xiaoping

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tax these private pools and build one truly for the public!

Communities and cities don't want to be legally and financially responsible for accidental drownings.

+100

Lots of liability with swimming pools

[Anonymous]

So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

[Anonymous]

I think this article is a bit of a stretch casting racism as a major factor. I believe it is one of many factors with the main one being rising affluence.

People have private pools because they can afford them and are more convenient. Of course this leads to less interest and investment in public pools as they are used less. If half the houses have their own pools you can be sure they are less interested in paying for a public pool, thus underinvestment leading to even less use and it snowballs from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

No. The point is the reason a wealthy, populous county like Fairfax County has no outdoor public pools (I'm not counting water parks) is because they chose to not build pools because they would have to be integrated. That is why here, and elsewhere, you have a system of expensive private pools that require residency or a membership.

The racism doesn't have to be spitting in your face to be racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

No. The point is the reason a wealthy, populous county like Fairfax County has no outdoor public pools (I'm not counting water parks) is because they chose to not build pools because they would have to be integrated. That is why here, and elsewhere, you have a system of expensive private pools that require residency or a membership.

The racism doesn't have to be spitting in your face to be racism.

So the indoor public pools in Fairfax are racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

No. The point is the reason a wealthy, populous county like Fairfax County has no outdoor public pools (I'm not counting water parks) is because they chose to not build pools because they would have to be integrated. That is why here, and elsewhere, you have a system of expensive private pools that require residency or a membership.

The racism doesn't have to be spitting in your face to be racism.

You can go to mostly white cities and towns and still find private pools and country club facilities. Not necessarily racism. They just don't want to swim and be around anyone of any color who is not from what they view as being from a similar background. It's why people vacation in expensive resort areas, buy homes in gated communities, and generally set themsrlves apart from those they deem "lower class."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

No. The point is the reason a wealthy, populous county like Fairfax County has no outdoor public pools (I'm not counting water parks) is because they chose to not build pools because they would have to be integrated. That is why here, and elsewhere, you have a system of expensive private pools that require residency or a membership.

The racism doesn't have to be spitting in your face to be racism.

Lol it’s like a pool HAS to be outdoor to count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a liability issue. For example, Recently there was an incident and now many of the public lap pools in DC make you get out every 45 minutes on the hour.

More on this from today:
https://wtop.com/dc/2023/07/what-is-the-all-out-policy-at-dc-pools-and-why-are-some-upset-about-it/?fbclid=IwAR02Dm09xIsidMQrA-fDBDLA-TeaP6LmGQw9iCJ1WkZABjVJGAmFszgHRws_aem_Ae_5zsXm8YWXaoAU549nb9stgIR0-omJKehXqVyjDLJE_dWqQCukxMFy5z0cesognAg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, if communities don't build pools, does that mean they are upholding white supremacy?

No. The point is the reason a wealthy, populous county like Fairfax County has no outdoor public pools (I'm not counting water parks) is because they chose to not build pools because they would have to be integrated. That is why here, and elsewhere, you have a system of expensive private pools that require residency or a membership.

The racism doesn't have to be spitting in your face to be racism.

I don't understand. Fairfax County isn't segregated, so if people sign up for private pools, those pools will be integrated.

[Anonymous]

This is confusing. Why would Fairfax integrate everything else, but draw the line at pools. And, if private pools only allowed white people to join, I think we'd be hearing about this in the real estate forum.