Under summer heat, some pools remain shuttered

On hazy, sun-soaked afternoons last summer, Andrew Christman, 35, regularly took his young son, Jozef, to the Fishtown neighborhood pool to splash in his water wings. But, because of city budget cuts, that recreation center pool is now closed. So is the Hancock pool, also a few blocks away. And so is the Cione pool, roughly a mile from his home.

As Philadelphia faced a fiscal crisis, there were predictions that only 10 of the city's 73 pools would open. Through private and public donations and money restored to the budget, the city this summer will open 46. The openings began this week and will continue through Friday, some marked by ribbon-cutting, music, and water ice.

In communities like Fishtown, where less than half of the pools in the Recreation Department district will open this summer, some residents are still questioning how the city decided which pools to reopen and which to shutter. "There's this vacuum," said Christman. "We're the only area where there's no safe walking distance to the pools. I could get in my car and drive across Philadelphia, but other kids in the neighborhood, they can't safely walk anywhere."

Christman said that the nearest neighborhood pool would be Cohocksink, about 11/2 miles from his home. Actually, the closest is the Waterloo pool, about the same distance from his home as the Fishtown pool.

"I don't know anything about that area," Christman said of the Waterloo pool, in West Kensington. "That's not our neighborhood."

Many residents have expressed concern that the pools that are open will be overrun with children and not have adequate staffing. Even more worrisome are fears that children will be crossing into uncharted neighborhoods and potentially sparking turf wars.

"Most children are not going to travel across that barrier, particularly boys" - namely her own grandchildren, said Claudia Sherrod of Point Breeze. "The barriers will just cause more problems. It's better to have them in a recreation center in their community instead of sending them outside."

In November, because of a budget shortfall, Mayor Nutter announced that only 10 pools would open this summer. In February, Nutter and Recreation Commissioner Susan Slawson launched the Splash and Summer FUNd to keep more open. With the $621,141 raised to date, added to the mayor's proposed budget, which restored $1 million to the Recreation Department's budget, the city was able to open an additional 36 pools, as well as hire 271 lifeguards and 246 maintenance aides.

The city has nine Recreation Department districts. In some districts, such as in Northwest Philadelphia communities, nearly all of the pools are reopening. In four districts, covering the Northeast, the Far Northeast, and sections of North and West Philadelphia, about half of the pools will open. In Fishtown and South Philadelphia, the number is less than half.

Slawson said the decision to close or reopen a pool was based on specific criteria: average usage from last season, size, condition, location, and accessibility by foot. "I totally understand the frustration," she said. "But our goal was to ensure a pool within walking distance, where families and children could go, cool off, and exercise for the summer. Can people walk across the street like they've been able to do in past years? No. But we did try to ensure that the pools were close enough so people could walk. I believe we've accomplished that."

Of residents' hesitancy to swim outside their neighborhood, Slawson said: "This is our city. At some point we have to realize that two blocks away is still our community."

For Sherrod, who has lived in Point Breeze all of her life, two blocks away from the Chew pool at 19th Street and Washington Avenue, where her children played and her grandchildren have played, losing the pool is "devastating."

"To think that they're going to take our pool away is ridiculous," said Sherrod, a mother of four, grandmother of nine. "I am so hot."

Sherrod said the nearest pool was now Vare, at 26th and Morris Streets. The Marian Anderson pool at 17th and Fitzwater Streets in South Philadelphia actually is much closer and also is open.

"It's too far," Sherrod said of Vare, adding that her younger grandchildren would not be allowed to go.

"Vare is a fantastic facility," she said, "but it's already overloaded with beautiful children. Why subject the staff to more children they can't handle?"

Slawson said that Recreation Department standards require one lifeguard per 30 people in a pool, a rule that will be enforced this summer. Slawson added that with the anticipation of more children at fewer pools, police officers will be at recreation centers to ensure safety. "We pride ourselves with providing quality services," Slawson said. "We can only offer 46 pools and have quality service this summer. If we do better in our fundraising for next season, hopefully we can open additional pools."

One pool saved this summer is at the Mander recreation center in Strawberry Mansion, where Haile Johnston runs a summer youth program with his wife, Tatiana.

In early March, Johnston called the pool's planned closing "a tragedy." This week, Recreation Department crews prepared for yesterday's reopening.

"It really means the world to our community," Johnston said. "But there's a whole lot of kids across the city whose summertime needs are not going to be met. It's still tragic that any of the pools have to be closed. We just happen to be one of the lucky ones."

At the Christy recreation center in Southwest Philadelphia, the pool reopened Thursday afternoon with face painting and dancing, the result of a $60,000 donation from Keystone Mercy Health Plan to the city's Splash FUNd.

In the cool blue water, about 50 children squealed and splashed as Beyonce's "Single Ladies" boomed through speakers.

"It's beautiful," said Deborah Colter, standing poolside with her 8-year-old daughter, Arianna, damp and grinning in a green bathing suit. "It feels great."

"When I was a kid," Colter's friend Delsa Burch said, "I used to come here to swim."

But Burch said the Rivera pool at Fifth Street and Allegheny Avenue, near her two young daughters' summer camp, is now closed.

"It's unfair because we want our children to be safe," she said. "The pools were here when I was a kid. Why'd they want to close the pools for my kids?"

With the Fishtown pool closed this summer, Christman, an art teacher for a nonprofit organization, is working with volunteers to create programs at the recreation center.

"It's adding insult to injury that the city didn't think to help our community that's already been hit so hard," Christman said, listing how the community rallied against the proposed library closures; how the neighborhood lost an engine company, No. 6; and now had lost its pool.

A few days ago, Christman took his son to the Fishtown recreation center to catch some relief in the facility's sprinkler park.

Although Jozef, 31/2, didn't seem to mind the difference, Christman doubted that sprinklers would appeal to the community's teens.

Then he added: "It's going to be a long, hot summer."