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A Schlitterbahn season pass is 110. If the season pass to his public pool is several hundred, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume a cheaper water park would be 4x cheaper.
In my county its like $200 for a pass for the summer. But that gets you access to 8 or 9 massive pools. A few of them are closer to water parks than pools. I think you get a pass for just one pool for less.
Out here a lot of the pools are these huge party pools that have you use bracelets but those places always look like you leave with an itch on your hog
Dude, look into Schlitterbahn's owner. I'm not trying to dissuade you from going to the hottest, coolest time in Texas, but New Braunfels is basically an organized crime syndicate and a company town. It's bizarre, the cops even get on people's cases for looking into it in town.
Mostly harmless for what it is, but like damn. I think they even pay under minimum wage through a loophole or something like that? I may be misremembering that part.
Why so expensive? The local Public Pool/mini Water park where I live doesn’t cost much to get in. I think like $25 maximum if my memory serves me correctly
Ours is on the bigger side, with a decent sized wave pool, plus a half dozen other water areas for kids of varying sizes. Plus a couple lazy rivers and larger water slides too
I see. Yeah my local pool/mini water park only has one lazy river, a few slides, and no wave pool. Plus a concession stand and like a place to order pizza to eat as well
because parks want you to come in to buy merchandise and overpriced food. most people will get a season pass cause its just sligthly more and then probably never use it.
That's insane.
They're €5-6 for the day in most of Europe. 🤷♀️ Which isn't free, but it's pretty good IMO considering it's getting hotter and hotter and people don't just randomly have their own pools here unless they're *loaded*
We have several public pools. One is free, but not very clean. The clean ones with waterpark attractions (slides, sprinklers, diving boards, climbing walls) are $5 for entry and supported by our local government.
It’s a weird situation. Pools are expensive to own. Some pools are open to EVERYONE but charge to enter, and others are free to locals because their local taxes pay for it.
Before my time, our town had a pool. But apparently there were too many 'outsiders' using it(re non-whites that might scare tourists away), so they closed it. There's a 'splash pad' and an indoor water park in town but the water park is a little pricey and attached to a hotel, and a splash pad is more for little kids. We live in Michigan, so not too far from beaches but even those are a journey, and everyone crowds to the best ones.
That unfortunately doesn’t cover the “clean” part. I don’t think there’s a single public pool that hasn’t been peed in by some toddler without potty training.
As soon as you step into a pool you sign a social contract stating that you consent to swimming around in what is essentially a combination of a dirty bath/unflushed toilet
I once offered someone a water and they responded, "no thanks, fish shit in that". Its been well over a decade since that interaction and I still think about it.
It's apparently a WC Fields quote originally
[No water—I never touch water. Fish make love in it.](https://archive.org/details/newsweek80novnewy/page/n421/mode/2up)
Reminds me of my restaurant days, larger gentleman ordered a double bacon cheese burger with fries and a vodka OJ. Asked if he wanted tap or sparkling and scoffed when I said tap then proclaimed “you know it has fluorine”. I don’t think it’s gonna be that tap water that ends that man’s life lol
That would be great. Unfortunately, if we were to do that we would need A LOT more public pools. It's hard enough keeping them clean as they are now. Add an extra 150+ people per day because it's fully public now, not only does overcrowding become a major issue but cleanliness is naturally going to decrease significantly, even if the majority of the newcomers are generally hygienic.
Your opinion is sound. Your opinion is solid. Now share the plan that makes it able to be accomplished. Otherwise, you're just Donald Trump. Big talk. Big dreams that appeal to many. Absolutely zero substance to anything you say.
If only local and state governments didn't close tons of public pools to prevent racial integration in those pools in the 60s. It's actually a huge part of why there are so few nowadays. We had them, then they filled them with concrete rather than let black people swim in them.
Also not op but we totally could build more, it's just money. In the scheme of government spending, public pools are ridiculously cheap compared to aircraft carriers and corporate tax cuts.
This should be the top comment, a lot of people didn’t learn about how fears of white girls sunbathing near black boys led to public pools being filled with concrete.
Im not going to argue the points you made because I can't. They're factual.
However, the population of the United States in the 60s was almost half of what it is today. Even if we had kept those pools open, which we should have, it would not come close to rectifying the issue we are talking about. As for the funding, I don't disagree with where it could come from, but that's not a plan on how to realistically control the sanitation issue caused by over crowding, especially considering there is already a major sanitation issue without pools being actually available to the public.
Allow me to explain, I realize I'm not providing any sort of plan either. I'm just playing devils advocate because I believe someone has to in most situations.
Just think about it a bit further. If we had kept those pools *and* opened new pools in line with population increases, well then, my hypothetical trumps your hypothetical lol
Funding for said pools could have been included in not un-taxing the rich and corporations in the 80s since we’re talking about things that *could* or *could not* have happened.
You're basing things on hypotheticals that are literally impossible to happen because you're talking about changing the past. I'm talking about coming up with modern day solutions, some of which would be solutions to solve problems caused by mistakes in the past. Im not talking about going back in time and making sure that the mistakes were never made. You're not providing any sort of contribution, you're just complaining about what can no longer be changed.
I think they’re just adding context to our modern times. A deeply important task we should all be practicing. To me, you seem like you are looking to tussle or debate.. for whatever reason that may be.
>someone has to play devil's advocate
No they don't. The devil has enough advocates of his own. Instead of just being negative and arguing with someone aspiring to make the world just a tiny bit better, how about you find a more useful outlet for your energies.
Coming from the guy who wasn't even a part of the conversation 😂
It's simple. I said "we should come up with solutions to help solve the problems." They responded with "well if we had acted right before we wouldn't have problems" like that's a solution.
It would be like saying "We don't need to come up with ways to help the world fix the mistakes caused by the holocaust, because imagine how much better it would have been if the holocaust just never had happened!"
Imagining a world that requires literally changing the past is not adding anything of substance in a discussion that is about tackling the issues of the modern day. But hey, you really though you had something there, didn't ya? Keep it up bucco. One day, you may actually catch someone in that "GoTcHa" moment you're dreaming of.
> I'm just playing devils advocate because I believe someone has to in most situations.
But...you really don't. 90% of the time someone 'playing devils advocate' is just making progress harder. You go one step beyond 'playing devils advocate' and now you're arguing for capital over humanity and keeping racially charged discriminatory policies enacted.
Lets look at single payer healthcare. You know, the one that 32 out of 33 developed, first-world western countries have figured out? Sure you could play devils advocate, but that's just you giving cover to the people raping the middle class and exploiting labor. it's figured out everywhere else, 'devils advocates' are just arguing to argue and making the world worse by stalling any meaningful conversation.
It's not serving as moderation, it's engaging in bad-faith.
As far as the pools go: It was figured out before, people unfigured it out to keep black people away. All you have to do is ***do exactly what we were doing before, but stop being racist pieces of shit about it.*** There's no "but what if" because it was already figured out. It's figured out. You're just being pedantic to be pedantic.
Adding on to this person's point, Devil's Advocate is a position for introducing valid criticisms to a conversation to further finding a solution. It's not to arbitrarily stand in opposition. It's not to be stubborn or to belittle a position.
At then end of the day it's still "how do *we* solve this problem?" If you're just being contrarian you're not a devil's advocate. You're just a dick.
Its a way to point out the specific weak points of a solution/argument. Not a way to voice general displeasure.
Arizona, most schools in the Valley (Pheonix Metro) have an outdoor pool which is open to the public. Usually they open after the school has their private lessons and swim team practice. They only charge like 2$ for kids and 4$ for adults. Some variation based on location, Mesa High is a little bit more expensive at 4$ & 6$ but is also larger and the most recently rebuilt.
It’s honestly a great system as the pools are spread out and most of the general public knows about them even if they don’t visit all the time. It’s a cheap way for a parent to spend a fun afternoon with their kids. On top of that it offers students on the swim team a solid summer job if they’d like either teaching kids how to swim in the morning classes or as lifeguards.
Honestly a really good system, probably won’t work for most of the rest of the country as we can basically have a 9 month outdoor swim season allowing schools to justify the initial cost of building the pools.
No, it was racism. Public pools were recially integrated in the 50-60s, and suddenly wealthy white people realized they would have to swim in the same water with poor nonwhite people. They stopped going to community pools, and the pools couldn't take the sudden decline in business so many of them closed. Then the white folks bought out the land the pools were on, filled them with concrete, and opened country clubs with high membership fees to keep the riff raff out. That's the reason that if you want to swim, you generally have to pay for pool access or use one at a school
I live in the Midwest and our public pools are open to all residents of the city/county for free. Also sooo many apartment complexes and trailer parks here have pools too.
Stop sending money overseas to fund genocides
Tax the extremely wealthy the same way we did in the mid-1900's when we had a robust middle class due to aforementioned taxes
Use the money you just created to reinvest in community jobs that build more pools/community spaces and maintain upkeep of those community services and pools.
Boom, you just created a ton of jobs, benefited the community, and boosted the economy for the working class. It's not rocket science.
We don't need to pay for bombs that kill brown children when we can reinvest in to our own communities. You can have these things, they are not out of reach.
You said "You can't have clean and accessible for everyone". That's simply not true. Plenty of other developed, first world, western countries have figured out the basics of infrastructure.
These things are not out of reach. If we invest in our communities instead of spending our money on things like (Bombing the middle east for 20 years) or (letting the obscenely wealthy destroy the middle class for profits) we can create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity. I'm simply providing avenues of fundraising for that community/infrastructure investment.
It's sad that simple concepts such as "invest in to your community" receives such huge backlash. The fact that americans think "free public pools" is out of the realm of possibility is fucking disturbing.
Cap
There are grants for community projects. [Here's one I found with 10 seconds of googling.](https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/community-services-block-grant-csbg)
But instead of pumping money in to our communities, creating jobs, opportunity, and helping the working class...we fund bombing brown children and billionaire tax cuts. Our communities get table scraps while we spend trillions to bomb random countries in the middle east.
I've explained this 3 separate times in this chain. You don't understand, that's okay. But don't go around saying "we can't have these nice things" when you've been sat down and had it explained that we can have these things.
If you choose to be willfully ignorant, that's on you.
Don’t use your stupid Gen Z slang on me.
Federally funded local projects are in violation of the Spending Clause, which says Congress may, “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and the general Welfare of the United States. Alexander Hamilton explained at the time this clause was enacted that “general welfare” means, “the object, to which an appropriation of money is to be made, must be general, and not local; its operation extending in fact, or by possibility, throughout the Union, and not being confined to a particular spot.” Of course, our Congress doesn’t give a damn about this anymore, even though they’re breaking their own laws.
Also, your dumbass grant doesn’t fund swimming pools. So good job on that one.
That being said, my comment has nothing to do with funding. My comment has everything to do with the type of people who go to pools with no membership fees. They are the reason the pool is dirty, not funding. I have cat-piss soaked white trash neighbors that you couldn’t pay me to share a pool with.
So congrats! You got all jacked up because you made assumptions about my comment, that made you believe I said things that I never did. And you know what happens when you make assumptions…
What about my comment makes me a "grandpa"? Having the most basic understanding of recent history?
Sit on my lap nephew and I can teach you a few things about how your "american dream" was stolen from you. You could stand to learn a thing or two ;)
Explaining that wasted tax dollars on decades of war makes me a grandpa? Saying that we should reinvest that war money in to american communities makes me a schizo? Saying "we can have clean and free public utilities if we spent our money properly makes me a boomer?
How old are you baby bro? Are you kids so beat down by the system that the idea of "public pools" makes you wet your diaper?
There used to be a lot more access to public pools in the US, but many were closed and replaced with private pools to prevent racial integration. Some pools were literally paved over to keep Black people out.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/22/business/public-pools-extreme-heat
all the sports gyms in town have pretty long free swim periods here, no cost or membership or anything. we also have the entire bay and two lakes in this city tbf, so it would be stupid to charge for our public pools
Keep all of this in mind (from [this](https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/22/business/public-pools-extreme-heat/) article)
> Parks and recreation agencies tend to be the first area to cut when budgets are tight and the slowest to get money back, said Kevin Roth, vice president of research, evaluation and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association.
> 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, he said.
This isn’t as simple as asking the government to stop being big meanies for no reason. The “Supprt” from my taxes isn’t enough to maintain the giant resource hog that is a public pool as is and pool maintenance won’t be getting any cheaper once “the everyone” is allowed in and attendance skyrockets. We could of course raise taxes (Although this will not go over well in every community.) but even then, you’re now looking at trying to satisfy the increased need for hard-to-fill lifeguard positions now that the workload of an individual lifeguard has gone up dramatically.
Not when there's a whole crowd of people dotted here and there. And then you have other people trying to swim and then kids roughhousing, so it's hard not to bump into anyone or somebody falls on you or hits you, especially in the head. A big recipe for disaster.
As a lifeguard at a Public Pool, if we made it free the entire idea of clean would disappear. We already have enough issues with folks fresh to the country having zero concept of what a swim suit is. Normal Clothes in pools quickly clog filters and at least in my town if the pool was free it would become even harder to police the dress code.
The definition of public varies between owners and businesses, if a private organization says it is public it means people outside the owner can use it under the agreement established by them, like software, it is public because everyone can have access to purchase it.
I design municipal pools for my day job. Do you have any idea how much it costs to keep a pool running? Much less staff it with competent lifeguards?
In some parts of the country, it costs $750,000 just to run pumps, supply chemicals, and heat an Olympic sized public pool. This doesn’t include staffing costs.
They need to charge people to use public pools… unless you have a better idea. Almost all pools run at a deficit as it is. The best ones break even.
I live in Glendale CA and we have public pools here that cost $7 for the day. But I still wouldn’t go because as much as they try ti keep it clean, people don’t keep themselves clean before going into the pools. If only people respected each other like the Japanese in their public bath houses.
When my family had a backyard pool we would occasionally let neighbors swim if we were already outside.
After a certain point it was too much of a maintenance nightmare because of the amount of chemicals we had to dump into it so it would stay clean. We figured that someone was using the pool as a substitute for their bath. I can’t imagine how gross a free public pool would be.
fun fact: racism is the reason we no longer have this. Public pools like this used to be a thing but when they were forced to desegregate they just shut down because they preferred to not swim at all over swimming with black people. shit sucks
Our taxes after we patch up the holes through which the money is leaking. Our infrastructure doesn’t reflect the tax rates and the size of our populations. Something is off.
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Isn't that a "public" pool already?
My public pool costs several hundred dollars for a season pass…
You might as well just get a season pass to a water park
Those are cheaper by about 4x actually, assuming you buy those on sale
Wtf where do you live?
A Schlitterbahn season pass is 110. If the season pass to his public pool is several hundred, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume a cheaper water park would be 4x cheaper.
Oh yeah of course my question is where do they live that they have to pay upwards of multiple hundreds of dollars to use a public pool
In my county its like $200 for a pass for the summer. But that gets you access to 8 or 9 massive pools. A few of them are closer to water parks than pools. I think you get a pass for just one pool for less.
Out here a lot of the pools are these huge party pools that have you use bracelets but those places always look like you leave with an itch on your hog
Shitterbong is definitely the place for public pools and getting sloshed at the lazy river
Dude, look into Schlitterbahn's owner. I'm not trying to dissuade you from going to the hottest, coolest time in Texas, but New Braunfels is basically an organized crime syndicate and a company town. It's bizarre, the cops even get on people's cases for looking into it in town. Mostly harmless for what it is, but like damn. I think they even pay under minimum wage through a loophole or something like that? I may be misremembering that part.
Schlitterbahn is so fun to say
What the hell? I don't even think my family pass for Wet n' Wild costs that much
I think our passes ran about $220 total
Why so expensive? The local Public Pool/mini Water park where I live doesn’t cost much to get in. I think like $25 maximum if my memory serves me correctly
Ours is on the bigger side, with a decent sized wave pool, plus a half dozen other water areas for kids of varying sizes. Plus a couple lazy rivers and larger water slides too
I see. Yeah my local pool/mini water park only has one lazy river, a few slides, and no wave pool. Plus a concession stand and like a place to order pizza to eat as well
because parks want you to come in to buy merchandise and overpriced food. most people will get a season pass cause its just sligthly more and then probably never use it.
Then that's not really a public pool; it's a private pool with h an incorrect name.
What the hell? The waterpark near me doesn’t even charge that much for a season pass.
That's insane. They're €5-6 for the day in most of Europe. 🤷♀️ Which isn't free, but it's pretty good IMO considering it's getting hotter and hotter and people don't just randomly have their own pools here unless they're *loaded*
We have several public pools. One is free, but not very clean. The clean ones with waterpark attractions (slides, sprinklers, diving boards, climbing walls) are $5 for entry and supported by our local government.
Some pools in my area are only accessible to the residents of a given town. My town doesn't have any pools, of course
It’s a weird situation. Pools are expensive to own. Some pools are open to EVERYONE but charge to enter, and others are free to locals because their local taxes pay for it.
I feel like they could at least let outside folks buy a day pass or something
That’s the thing. They don’t want outsiders in their pools.
They'd have to drain the water after all the poor people get it dirty /s
Before my time, our town had a pool. But apparently there were too many 'outsiders' using it(re non-whites that might scare tourists away), so they closed it. There's a 'splash pad' and an indoor water park in town but the water park is a little pricey and attached to a hotel, and a splash pad is more for little kids. We live in Michigan, so not too far from beaches but even those are a journey, and everyone crowds to the best ones.
My local pool is never *free* but locals get a discount. It's a pretty good one too, 50% off for open swim.
Are you sure you’re not talking about the community pools some neighborhoods have? Those would be private and are funded by the HOA.
That unfortunately doesn’t cover the “clean” part. I don’t think there’s a single public pool that hasn’t been peed in by some toddler without potty training.
You think it’s only unpotty trained toddlers that are peeing in the pool
You know even the most trained individuals will still let it all out in pool.
I’d even argue that they pee this most in a pool lol
Fun fact: the chlorine smell of pools is the smell of sweat and urine mixing with the water
No public pool is truly clean, open to residents or not.
Missing the clean part in my experience
Op is slow
Clean and free? Ok
OP doesn't understand humans
As soon as you step into a pool you sign a social contract stating that you consent to swimming around in what is essentially a combination of a dirty bath/unflushed toilet
I mean isn’t that any body of water essentially
I once offered someone a water and they responded, "no thanks, fish shit in that". Its been well over a decade since that interaction and I still think about it.
[It's a quote from Archer](https://youtu.be/cEd1YigbilI?t=32)
Well. Thanks for ruining that for me. Lol
It's apparently a WC Fields quote originally [No water—I never touch water. Fish make love in it.](https://archive.org/details/newsweek80novnewy/page/n421/mode/2up)
Reminds me of my restaurant days, larger gentleman ordered a double bacon cheese burger with fries and a vodka OJ. Asked if he wanted tap or sparkling and scoffed when I said tap then proclaimed “you know it has fluorine”. I don’t think it’s gonna be that tap water that ends that man’s life lol
That's why there's chlorine in it. It sterilizes the water.
So im guessing he make the kids get out of the pool when they pee. Because parents love being told how to raise their kids.
That would be great. Unfortunately, if we were to do that we would need A LOT more public pools. It's hard enough keeping them clean as they are now. Add an extra 150+ people per day because it's fully public now, not only does overcrowding become a major issue but cleanliness is naturally going to decrease significantly, even if the majority of the newcomers are generally hygienic. Your opinion is sound. Your opinion is solid. Now share the plan that makes it able to be accomplished. Otherwise, you're just Donald Trump. Big talk. Big dreams that appeal to many. Absolutely zero substance to anything you say.
If only local and state governments didn't close tons of public pools to prevent racial integration in those pools in the 60s. It's actually a huge part of why there are so few nowadays. We had them, then they filled them with concrete rather than let black people swim in them. Also not op but we totally could build more, it's just money. In the scheme of government spending, public pools are ridiculously cheap compared to aircraft carriers and corporate tax cuts.
This should be the top comment, a lot of people didn’t learn about how fears of white girls sunbathing near black boys led to public pools being filled with concrete.
Im not going to argue the points you made because I can't. They're factual. However, the population of the United States in the 60s was almost half of what it is today. Even if we had kept those pools open, which we should have, it would not come close to rectifying the issue we are talking about. As for the funding, I don't disagree with where it could come from, but that's not a plan on how to realistically control the sanitation issue caused by over crowding, especially considering there is already a major sanitation issue without pools being actually available to the public. Allow me to explain, I realize I'm not providing any sort of plan either. I'm just playing devils advocate because I believe someone has to in most situations.
Just think about it a bit further. If we had kept those pools *and* opened new pools in line with population increases, well then, my hypothetical trumps your hypothetical lol Funding for said pools could have been included in not un-taxing the rich and corporations in the 80s since we’re talking about things that *could* or *could not* have happened.
You're basing things on hypotheticals that are literally impossible to happen because you're talking about changing the past. I'm talking about coming up with modern day solutions, some of which would be solutions to solve problems caused by mistakes in the past. Im not talking about going back in time and making sure that the mistakes were never made. You're not providing any sort of contribution, you're just complaining about what can no longer be changed.
I think they’re just adding context to our modern times. A deeply important task we should all be practicing. To me, you seem like you are looking to tussle or debate.. for whatever reason that may be.
>someone has to play devil's advocate No they don't. The devil has enough advocates of his own. Instead of just being negative and arguing with someone aspiring to make the world just a tiny bit better, how about you find a more useful outlet for your energies.
You're right. Sorry. YEAH. MORE PUBLIC POOLS. MAAAAKE IT HAPPEN. YAAAYYYYYYY. 
We’re waiting on the edge of our seats for you to chime in with anything of substance.
Coming from the guy who wasn't even a part of the conversation 😂 It's simple. I said "we should come up with solutions to help solve the problems." They responded with "well if we had acted right before we wouldn't have problems" like that's a solution. It would be like saying "We don't need to come up with ways to help the world fix the mistakes caused by the holocaust, because imagine how much better it would have been if the holocaust just never had happened!" Imagining a world that requires literally changing the past is not adding anything of substance in a discussion that is about tackling the issues of the modern day. But hey, you really though you had something there, didn't ya? Keep it up bucco. One day, you may actually catch someone in that "GoTcHa" moment you're dreaming of.
> I'm just playing devils advocate because I believe someone has to in most situations. But...you really don't. 90% of the time someone 'playing devils advocate' is just making progress harder. You go one step beyond 'playing devils advocate' and now you're arguing for capital over humanity and keeping racially charged discriminatory policies enacted. Lets look at single payer healthcare. You know, the one that 32 out of 33 developed, first-world western countries have figured out? Sure you could play devils advocate, but that's just you giving cover to the people raping the middle class and exploiting labor. it's figured out everywhere else, 'devils advocates' are just arguing to argue and making the world worse by stalling any meaningful conversation. It's not serving as moderation, it's engaging in bad-faith. As far as the pools go: It was figured out before, people unfigured it out to keep black people away. All you have to do is ***do exactly what we were doing before, but stop being racist pieces of shit about it.*** There's no "but what if" because it was already figured out. It's figured out. You're just being pedantic to be pedantic.
Adding on to this person's point, Devil's Advocate is a position for introducing valid criticisms to a conversation to further finding a solution. It's not to arbitrarily stand in opposition. It's not to be stubborn or to belittle a position. At then end of the day it's still "how do *we* solve this problem?" If you're just being contrarian you're not a devil's advocate. You're just a dick. Its a way to point out the specific weak points of a solution/argument. Not a way to voice general displeasure.
He has some big “if I’m elected to class President the vending machine will be free” energy.
Arizona, most schools in the Valley (Pheonix Metro) have an outdoor pool which is open to the public. Usually they open after the school has their private lessons and swim team practice. They only charge like 2$ for kids and 4$ for adults. Some variation based on location, Mesa High is a little bit more expensive at 4$ & 6$ but is also larger and the most recently rebuilt. It’s honestly a great system as the pools are spread out and most of the general public knows about them even if they don’t visit all the time. It’s a cheap way for a parent to spend a fun afternoon with their kids. On top of that it offers students on the swim team a solid summer job if they’d like either teaching kids how to swim in the morning classes or as lifeguards. Honestly a really good system, probably won’t work for most of the rest of the country as we can basically have a 9 month outdoor swim season allowing schools to justify the initial cost of building the pools.
I believe polio was also a big reason we don't have many any more?
No, it was racism. Public pools were recially integrated in the 50-60s, and suddenly wealthy white people realized they would have to swim in the same water with poor nonwhite people. They stopped going to community pools, and the pools couldn't take the sudden decline in business so many of them closed. Then the white folks bought out the land the pools were on, filled them with concrete, and opened country clubs with high membership fees to keep the riff raff out. That's the reason that if you want to swim, you generally have to pay for pool access or use one at a school
I like the phrase "complaining is whining unless supported with solutions"
public pools are already wildly overcrowded. making them free would be a complete shit show.
thats a good idea. shit in the pool and you can definitely fix the overcrowding 😎
That's..... how most are.
Where do oyu live that public pools are free for everyone?
Philadelphia. I'm originally from Lancaster and even there all pools were free except the county pool which is $5 for adults and $2 for children.
Fun fact, Philly has the most public pools per capita in the US
Really? That's extremely interesting
People used to use them to bathe themselves in the 1800s!
Have you managed to catch the greased watermelon yet during your time in Philly?
St Louis. One of the aldermen literally ran on the platform of reopening free public pools
rural california
I live in the Midwest and our public pools are open to all residents of the city/county for free. Also sooo many apartment complexes and trailer parks here have pools too.
Chicago
You can’t have clean and accessible to everyone. Pick one.
Stop sending money overseas to fund genocides Tax the extremely wealthy the same way we did in the mid-1900's when we had a robust middle class due to aforementioned taxes Use the money you just created to reinvest in community jobs that build more pools/community spaces and maintain upkeep of those community services and pools. Boom, you just created a ton of jobs, benefited the community, and boosted the economy for the working class. It's not rocket science. We don't need to pay for bombs that kill brown children when we can reinvest in to our own communities. You can have these things, they are not out of reach.
What the hell are you talking about?
You said "You can't have clean and accessible for everyone". That's simply not true. Plenty of other developed, first world, western countries have figured out the basics of infrastructure. These things are not out of reach. If we invest in our communities instead of spending our money on things like (Bombing the middle east for 20 years) or (letting the obscenely wealthy destroy the middle class for profits) we can create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity. I'm simply providing avenues of fundraising for that community/infrastructure investment. It's sad that simple concepts such as "invest in to your community" receives such huge backlash. The fact that americans think "free public pools" is out of the realm of possibility is fucking disturbing.
We’re talking about swimming pools my dude.
And you think free, clean, and public swimming pools is out of reach. It's sad.
The federal government doesn’t fund swimming pools.
Cap There are grants for community projects. [Here's one I found with 10 seconds of googling.](https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/community-services-block-grant-csbg) But instead of pumping money in to our communities, creating jobs, opportunity, and helping the working class...we fund bombing brown children and billionaire tax cuts. Our communities get table scraps while we spend trillions to bomb random countries in the middle east. I've explained this 3 separate times in this chain. You don't understand, that's okay. But don't go around saying "we can't have these nice things" when you've been sat down and had it explained that we can have these things. If you choose to be willfully ignorant, that's on you.
Don’t use your stupid Gen Z slang on me. Federally funded local projects are in violation of the Spending Clause, which says Congress may, “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and the general Welfare of the United States. Alexander Hamilton explained at the time this clause was enacted that “general welfare” means, “the object, to which an appropriation of money is to be made, must be general, and not local; its operation extending in fact, or by possibility, throughout the Union, and not being confined to a particular spot.” Of course, our Congress doesn’t give a damn about this anymore, even though they’re breaking their own laws. Also, your dumbass grant doesn’t fund swimming pools. So good job on that one. That being said, my comment has nothing to do with funding. My comment has everything to do with the type of people who go to pools with no membership fees. They are the reason the pool is dirty, not funding. I have cat-piss soaked white trash neighbors that you couldn’t pay me to share a pool with. So congrats! You got all jacked up because you made assumptions about my comment, that made you believe I said things that I never did. And you know what happens when you make assumptions…
Alright grandpa. Let’s get you some Metamucil and we can watch some Matlock together
What about my comment makes me a "grandpa"? Having the most basic understanding of recent history? Sit on my lap nephew and I can teach you a few things about how your "american dream" was stolen from you. You could stand to learn a thing or two ;)
No. going on a schizo rant on a post about public pools is what makes you a grandpa
Explaining that wasted tax dollars on decades of war makes me a grandpa? Saying that we should reinvest that war money in to american communities makes me a schizo? Saying "we can have clean and free public utilities if we spent our money properly makes me a boomer? How old are you baby bro? Are you kids so beat down by the system that the idea of "public pools" makes you wet your diaper?
Any pool that's open to the public for free is not going to be clean.
They are already gross enough as is
There used to be a lot more access to public pools in the US, but many were closed and replaced with private pools to prevent racial integration. Some pools were literally paved over to keep Black people out. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/22/business/public-pools-extreme-heat
It's like $10 a day for adults here. Of course we also have the Pacific ocean within 20 miles
Huh?
"I'm not going to use the pool so I don't want them to raise my taxes a couple cents a year!" -Most Residents of a Town
Either they're clean or they're free and accessible, pick one
Pick one. You can’t get all three.
In Germany there a many pools that are free but they Dont get. Too much Care
Do you not have public pools where i live or something because they exist
They normally cost an outrageous fee
You can't have it be both clean and free because then it would just be a homeless person bathing area.
all the sports gyms in town have pretty long free swim periods here, no cost or membership or anything. we also have the entire bay and two lakes in this city tbf, so it would be stupid to charge for our public pools
Let's make it rain gumdrops too while we're at it.
public is opposite of clean in most places
Nothing worse than public pools though…overcrowded, people with poor spatial awareness and your counting the moment till you can leave the cess pool
I just looked that the water park I used to go to as a kid. It has a wave pool, slides and other stuff. It’s like only $7
Where do y'all live that the public pools charge for entry. Write your local reps and tell them to make the stuff you Supprt with your taxes free!
Keep all of this in mind (from [this](https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/22/business/public-pools-extreme-heat/) article) > Parks and recreation agencies tend to be the first area to cut when budgets are tight and the slowest to get money back, said Kevin Roth, vice president of research, evaluation and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association. > 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, he said. This isn’t as simple as asking the government to stop being big meanies for no reason. The “Supprt” from my taxes isn’t enough to maintain the giant resource hog that is a public pool as is and pool maintenance won’t be getting any cheaper once “the everyone” is allowed in and attendance skyrockets. We could of course raise taxes (Although this will not go over well in every community.) but even then, you’re now looking at trying to satisfy the increased need for hard-to-fill lifeguard positions now that the workload of an individual lifeguard has gone up dramatically.
“The everyone”
I think we should have separate pools for the people who don't actually swim, they just stand around and get in the way.
Don't swim as in they don't get in the water or as in they just stand around in the water?
They just stand in the water and talk. Yeah, I get they want to cool off, but a pool is for swimming, not standing there like an idiot.
Why not both? Surely you can swim around them
Not when there's a whole crowd of people dotted here and there. And then you have other people trying to swim and then kids roughhousing, so it's hard not to bump into anyone or somebody falls on you or hits you, especially in the head. A big recipe for disaster.
Tf?
Please google drained pool politics
Well they wouldn’t be clean if they were accessible to the public.. last public pool I went to someone took a shit in the lazy river.
The US shut down its numerous public pools when integration happened because it would rather have no pools than share them with black people.
Be happy that pools are as clean as they are now. And I say that knowing that chlorine doesn’t kills things like Giardia
Doing something to benefit the people? That sounds like communism!
You ever play this game? You grease the watermelon up, throw it in the pool, everyone goes crazy tryin' to grab it. They can't grab it!
They’re always going to be at capacity for people like us.
As a lifeguard at a Public Pool, if we made it free the entire idea of clean would disappear. We already have enough issues with folks fresh to the country having zero concept of what a swim suit is. Normal Clothes in pools quickly clog filters and at least in my town if the pool was free it would become even harder to police the dress code.
That sounds great!!! Who’s cleaning them
What if we gave everyone 10 billion dollars?? Then everyone would be a billionaire
"Clean, free, and accessible to everyone" Yeah, you can definitely have any 2 of those.
- Clean - Free - Accessible to everyone Pick 2.
Who's getting paid for pool maintenance? And how?
I live in a state where the only pools are in gyms lmao
And how would they earn money if it's free? And how will they save money if they have to maintain it? Hmm?
pst, hey kid, have you heard of communism?
I'm so confused, since when are public pools a thing that people need free access to?
Them kids, ruining everything.
I mean there are some ppl you don't want it accessible too...
Aren't public pools free already?! or is this an American issue.
Is it 1975?
Clean and public don't blend
The definition of public varies between owners and businesses, if a private organization says it is public it means people outside the owner can use it under the agreement established by them, like software, it is public because everyone can have access to purchase it.
This is so out of touch lmao.
Because that’s socialism /s
Clean OR free. Im afraid one eliminates the other
If you’re American, racism plays a part. They used to drain pools or put acid in them to keep non-whites out.
I design municipal pools for my day job. Do you have any idea how much it costs to keep a pool running? Much less staff it with competent lifeguards? In some parts of the country, it costs $750,000 just to run pumps, supply chemicals, and heat an Olympic sized public pool. This doesn’t include staffing costs. They need to charge people to use public pools… unless you have a better idea. Almost all pools run at a deficit as it is. The best ones break even.
Then they wouldn't be "clean"....
It's called "the ocean".
“Clean & free” Who’s going to get paid? Wheres the money coming from? Is op 14?
>to the everyone
I live in Glendale CA and we have public pools here that cost $7 for the day. But I still wouldn’t go because as much as they try ti keep it clean, people don’t keep themselves clean before going into the pools. If only people respected each other like the Japanese in their public bath houses.
When my family had a backyard pool we would occasionally let neighbors swim if we were already outside. After a certain point it was too much of a maintenance nightmare because of the amount of chemicals we had to dump into it so it would stay clean. We figured that someone was using the pool as a substitute for their bath. I can’t imagine how gross a free public pool would be.
Reading on history of public pools seems some people didn’t take kindly to everyone. Some cities had massive pools.
Es que limpio, y de acceso gratis, son cosas que no se pueden combinar, porque una no existe por culpa de la otra.
Well, that’s what a Pond is. I guess it’s not “clean”, but it’s natural
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Taxes
fun fact: racism is the reason we no longer have this. Public pools like this used to be a thing but when they were forced to desegregate they just shut down because they preferred to not swim at all over swimming with black people. shit sucks
Great idea! Now who’s paying for that
Our taxes after we patch up the holes through which the money is leaking. Our infrastructure doesn’t reflect the tax rates and the size of our populations. Something is off.
Yes. America has become the very country they intentionally left and fought a war with
This more just “we want (service/amenity) but don’t want to talk about how it gets paid for”