Let’s keep Austin in the swim of civilization: Fund the pools
This newspaper Saturday reported that fixing all of Austin’s public swimming pools would cost about $47 million. I noted this number before I headed out for my Saturday morning routine, which is volunteering at the Austin Nature and Science Center in Zilker Park.
Like many Austin swimming pools, the Nature and Science Center is free. We get a lot of big families with small children and parenting skills that vary from excellent to questionable. But what matters to me is that the families come. They come all year long, and we show the children butterflies, bees, foxes and owls. In their natural enthusiasm, the children forget all about their screens, at least for a little while. Families come because we are open seven days a week, and they can have a whole afternoon of fun and education for no money. They come because the service we provide is high-quality and reliable.
Sixty-one percent of the children in the Austin Independent School District are poor. The city services provided to these kids and their parents are crucially important to the future of everyone who lives here. Everyone in Austin should have an interest in the kinds of lives our young people are living. We can either see to it that we make Austin a place where all kids thrive and can grow to be healthy and productive adults, or we can continue to chip away at city services that help the poorest and least able.
City libraries are already shut down one day a week. This summer, for the very first time, the vast majority of city pools were closed one day a week.
There is a big problem with this type of cutback. On paper it may appear quite seductive to a city financial planner. Who cares if one day a week a little library or pool locks its gate? But the problem is that the more unreliable services become, the less people will use them. It is not only human nature but a reality that economists have proven.
So what about the cost savings?
When I moved to Austin in 1977, the city had a master plan in place that required each household to be within walking distance of a park and swimming pool. Summers here are a lot hotter and longer than they were in 1977. More poor children and families live here.
I suggest that rather than shut down pools, we bring back this good idea and commit to funding it. If we do not find the $47 million now, the price tag for fixing all our pools will go up to $100 million in a few years. Just a year ago the city of Austin passed up on purchasing a beautiful, untouched 75-acre tract on Shoal Creek, right in the middle of town, for $25 million, a figure that I assure you will look like peanuts 10 years from now. The reason? We supposedly did not have enough money simply to maintain the city parks we already own.
We’re a booming city with big companies, many wealthy residents, good financial and natural resources, and high property taxes. I refuse to accept that we have to cut back on Austin city services that are here for everyone, young and old, rich and poor. Let’s fund the swimming pools and keep them open for all of us.
I’d love to see you at the pool. I’ll be the old lady doing her laps.
Closing pools may seem seductive to a city planner. But unreliable services get used less.