Protesters At City Hall: Closing City Pools Is Racist
A group of activists opposed to cuts in city services is outside City Hall right now, protesting the city's decision to close 29 public pools. The group, which is still calling itself the Coalition to Save the Libraries after its fight last year on that issue, is now comparing the city to The Valley Club, the Huntingdon Valley swim club thrust into the national spotlight recently for rejecting a group of mostly minority children from a Philadelphia day camp.
Protesters At City Hall: Closing City Pools Is Racist
Chris Brennan
A group of activists opposed to cuts in city services is outside the Mayor's Office in City Hall right now, protesting the decision to close some public pools. The group, which is still calling itself the Coalition to Save the Libraries after its fight last year on that issue, is now comparing the city to The Valley Club, the Huntingdon Valley swim club thrust into the national spotlight recently for rejecting a group of mostly minority children from a Philadelphia day camp.
The group, including about 50 adults and children waving signs and chanting slogans, gathered around a plastic baby pool filled with toys outside City Hall before coming inside. Two of the children held signs saying "Closing our pools = changing the complexion of our city." That's a reference to an initial statement from the president of the Valley Club, who said the day campers were rejected because "there was a concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion" of the club. He later said that was a terrible choice of words and didn't reflect the safety concerns behind the decision.
Eric Braxton, a long-time Philadelphia activist, took the comparison a bit further in a speech to the protesters. "While we should condemn the Valley swim club, let's recognize that the city of Philadelphia has done the exact same thing to thousands of young people in Philadelphia." Braxton later said accusing the city of discrimination was fair because many of the closed public pools served "poor and working class" neighborhoods.
Forty-six of the city's 73 public pools are being opened this summer. Mayor Nutter is in Harrisburg today, lobbying for the budget deal he struck with City Council to increase the city's sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar and to make changes in the city's pension plan. Those issues must be approved by the state General Assembly, which is locked in its own budget battle. Without those changes, the city will implement a back-up budget that includes larger cuts, including to the city Police Department and Fire Department.
UPDATE, 1:40 pm: Clay Armbrister, Nutter's chief of staff, came out to speak with the protesters, who greeted him with catcalls about the city budget. "What people need to understand is we're in a very, very dire economic situation," Armbrister said. He was interrupted by Sherrie Cohen, a regular participant in these protests and daughter of the late Councilman David Cohen, who tried to start a chant of "So are we." It didn't take.
"It was unfortunate that we had to make some choices," Armbrister responded when one of the children asked who decided to close the pools. "We didn't have enough money to keep all the pools open."
Go take a dip in the Delaware or Schuylkill river.— The_Unknown-Poster- Two things: Closing pools specifically is not racist. Choosing to deny public funded services to people that are without the means to provide those same service for themselves again is not specifically racist. But when it is part of a patern of behavior; a precisting neglect of a certain community habitually, it then becomes racist. Second, the fact that members of the city government are minorities does not necessary preclude them from being/acting racist. Politcians, white or black, function as part of a system that is ultimately bigger then the sum of its indiviual parts. It should be that in general American governments operate with racist consequences. Remeber, some the officers that murdered Sean Bell were black...— SethGordon
- This is pathetic. The claims of racism at the Valley Swim Club is completely baseless. The group insisted that the swim club work things out so that they could come back. The Swim Club does that and the camp group says "We don't want to go back and we're suing." Now a black mayor is racist against blacks for closing public pools. Yeah, ok. How about the city get out of the recreation business and sell all the pools to a private company. To say pools are essential is beyond stupid.— MikeP
Comment removed.- SethGordon, you are so smart. You have it all figured out. If there is a pattern, IT MUST BE RACISM. It can't be anything else. Not people lobbying city government, not variation of the effectiveness of the city council member, not the cost to open and maintain a pool. If there is a pattern, it's racism!!— MikeP
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- Mike P, thank you for calling me smart. Whatever the cause is, the Philadelphia city government fails the black community. Now that is not necessarily racist either, to me it just seems that racism is most reasonable explanation— SethGordon
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- On my block when I was growing up we didn't have or need a pool: WE DID IT PHILLY OLD SKOOL STYLE: OPEN UP THE FIRE PLUGS!! WOO HOO!— ShroomCheeseSteak
- SethGordon, The brothers and Sisters are running the city. So how could it be racism if its the brothers and sisters are failing the black community? The black community is running things in this city according to the politicians of the city.— jn3
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- This is a case of the media not getting it right, or maybe using a provacative headline to hook readers into the story. The fact is that, while most of the demonstrators were indeed African American, there were white kids there who were welcomed and who spoke eloquently at the mic. as did many of the kids. The white youngsters identified themselves as being from Fishtown, and one of them, a young lady of about 11 or 12 said, she felt "horrible" about not having a place to swim this summer. I have to agree with billybob369 who said this is a case of the City Govt not doing the right thing. That is the point the demonstrators were trying to make, and many did so eloquently. Some also mentioned the library closings and the closing of fire stations. Some of the adults who spoke also mentioned more basic issues, such as the budget being balanced on the backs of the children of poor and working people. Powerful points in my opinion.— bikerbenn
It seems these "protesters" have a lot of time on their hands. Why don't they man, maintain, and repair the pools they so badly want opened? It's not a race issue, it's a budget issue! What the heck is so bad about paying a nominal fee to keep a pool open? Heck, would a few bucks a day for all-day use of the pool break you? If so, you have some fierocious money management issues of your own.
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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