Why America stopped building public pools
cnn.com
cnn.com
Other than to add more sinecures for the politically connected…
Are you under the impression that government contracts for vehicle maintenance are immune to becoming sinecures for the politically connected? Only mechanics are subject to this possibility?
Typically people don’t live in a world of extreme positions whereby one occurrence of outsourcing being good (or bad) means all of them are. It is obvious the position that I have. Government has outsourced too many jobs to the private sector and the effect has been to enrich the business class at the expense of the working class.
That's foolish beyond measure.
For anyone who works in the military industrial complex, the income difference is stark.
Because, as we have seen, outsourcing these kinds of services is rarely cheaper and never actually better.
By keeping it in house, you can hire people correctly for the volume of maintenance you do. Your people become very good at the specific needs and faults of your system (see: Why SF firefighters make and repair their own ladders). And when you genuinely need something, you can redeploy your labor.
All outsourcing does is create an extra middleman whose mouth you must feed and whose workers you have no control over.
Executives, of course, loved outsourcing as it let them crack up the unions.
And for something like a police department, the efficiencies disappear with modern vehicles which need less maintenance.
It's mostly a cost issue. Towns see the huge maintenance bill and decide to close their pool. Half the indoor pools I went to in my childhood are now closed. No new public pools have been built.
When I was a kid, I had swimming classes every other week in school. My kids have swimming classes 4 times a year because the few remaining pools that schools can go to are overbooked.
The completely predictable result is that the number of kids and adults who can't swim is growing every year.
Somehow, this has changed. Kids don't give a shit and swim with their underwear underneath their swimpants. I don't know what the staff are doing but seems they have lost control. I am disgusted and will not visit public pools anymore. I wonder if this is a more global trend.
It is difficult to wash underwear with the same thoroughness. I have not seen people laundering their underwear before swimming.
[1] Our local pool changed to allow showering in one's bathing trunks. I personally don't like the rule, as I think people will skimp on washing their crotch before entering the pool.
For some reason most pools don't have the strong smell that I remember from my childhood anymore. Either it's because they are better ventilated, or because they check the chlorine levels more diligently (they sample the water every hour or so), or maybe I'm just not as sensitive to smells anymore.
There was even some neat research a few years back to figure out how much came from urea from pee, vs. from other bodily secretions: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/01/5177859... .
> The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine
After reading that NPR article, I can suggest another possible alternative; the pools might drain and refill their pools more often, rather than top-off when it gets low.
Dry hair might not be that good of an indicator? I mean, I see people doing breast stroke with their head completely out of the water.
I live in the middle of my country, there aren't even any rivers nearby. I'm not going to drown.
My undergrad (supposedly) will not graduate you unless you pass a swim test, have a waiver, or take a swim class.
ADDED: Something I've observed in the UK is rescue lifebuoys along rivers. Not saying it's a bad idea at all but never seen in the US.
True but accidentally ending up in water is rare. Deliberately putting yourself in water because you can swim is common. I'd still rather swim personally, but if I stayed out of the sea I would be safer.
What does one ability to swim has to do with whether they are a good computer scientist, doctor or lawyer? Insane.
Because you're never going to leave your home. So, yes, you don't need to be an Olympic athlete but if you can't basically swim you're stupid.
I get out in my urban metro with rivers and ponds all over.
I’ve never almost accidentally drown.
What is wrong with peoples risk assessment these days?
Maybe you should have a balance test done. Might be a tumor pushing on something.
BRB going for a bike ride. If I don’t reply I drown.
That's a ridiculous statement. There are so many other skills that could save your life one day, not knowing how to do that particular one isn't any stupider than not knowing how to climb a tree to escape a bear.
I agree people should be given the opportunity to learn how to swim but let's look at reality for a moment: Worldwide, almost 60% of humans do not know how to swim and they still get by fine... Wild, isn't it?
Like reading, knowing how to swim can save your life or the life of someone nearby. And swimming is much easier to learn than reading. There's no good reason not to learn to swim if you have access to a pool.
The next day we read in the local paper that a 26 year old man had drowned. Apparently he was a poor swimmer. They found him at the bottom of the lake, just 30m from the shore.
The only way to prevent tragedies like this is to make sure every kid learns to swim.
In places without good jobs that pay good salaries, people are either going to have to pay more taxes, or accept that the public services are going to suck :-/
But if you want to know why they take swimming seriously, it's a safety issue: [2]
[1] https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicagos-77-public-poo...
> Public pools are costly for cities to maintain and insure.
> Cities also have struggled to staff pools with lifeguards. High-school and college students have more summer job options and are less likely to pick up a job as a lifeguard over the summer than they once did, [Kevin Roth, vice president of research, evaluation and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association] said.
The article also doesn’t mention the rise of the “splash pad” as a cheaper and safer alternative for cooling off in the hot summer months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6O_Ep9bY0U&t=1m27s
That clip continues at 2m20s.
I also wonder if like so many other primarily outdoor activities (the MLK pool happens to be indoors), there's a generational decline in interest.