July 15-21, 2004

cityspace

Take a Dip

by Tasha Kates

In some Philadelphia neighborhoods, the scent of chlorine is back in the air.

Three of the 10 city swimming pools that were facing closure by a budget that stripped $4 million from the Recreation Department are being reopened. The pools were emblematic of a trend: Due to budget cuts, other city facilities including firehouses and recreation centers were also set to close.

On June 21, council reconfigured the plan to slash just $1 million in the hope that fewer pools would dry up. To be sure, at least two pools remained for years in such disrepair that they went unused, but several needed only minor repairs.

The reappropriated funds are being used to hire staff and buy supplies for the Northeast's Waterview and South Philly's Smith pools, which are expected to reopen on Friday. The extra money will also fund renovation for the Lackman pool on Bartlett Street, located north of Roosevelt Boulevard, one of three in the budget closed for "capital improvement construction issues."

Pools remaining closed are in various states of squalor. South Philadelphia's dilapidated Fante Leone pool hasn't been in operation for seven years, while the Franklin pool at Helen and Elkhart streets in North Philadelphia was only open a few weeks last summer. Others are close enough to another pool that it doesn't make sense to keep both open. The city expects to save about $50,000 per closed pool each year in staff and basic maintenance costs.

The closed pools have been drained, locked and decorated with signs that direct residents to the nearest open pool. Most of the alternate locations are four to nine blocks away, although one is more than a mile away from the closest urban oasis.

The recreation commissioner, Victor Richard, said the closed pools often get "refurbished" into informal skate parks, covered with graffiti and providing a home to abandoned shopping carts. The pools' 8-foot and 12-foot fences are no match for wirecutters.

"We can't stop them from cutting the fence open," Richard said. "It's normal urban problems we have." A functioning pool or rec center discourages the problems associated with blight, Richard adds.

The city is looking into renovating the remaining closed pools into interactive water parks with colorful sprinklers called "spraygrounds." Each automated sprinkler contains drinkable, chemical-free water that is caught in drains to prevent standing pools. Spraygrounds are cheaper to maintain because the water levels do not require monitoring. Richard says, however, that no firm plans have been made to transform the pools.