One of the greatest and most memorable pleasures of my youth was learning to swim and dive and spending each summer immersed in the local public pool in my small southern California hometown where the temperature often exceeded 90 degrees. This is probably a very common memory of baby-boomers who grew up in our state. For me, this love of swimming has followed me through life into near-decrepitude and I can’t imagine my life without it. Unfortunately, the youth of our city do not currently have the same opportunity.
The state of our public pools in San Jose is nothing short of disgraceful. This has been pointed out numerous times recently in the Mercury News and the Metro, and I want to add the voice of this site to the outcry. The entire city has only six pools, an unbelievably small number to begin with, but the situation gets even worse when you learn that only two of them are operational. That’s right, TWO operational city-operated pools for a population of a million. The other four are closed due to lack of funds to repair and operate them safely. According to an article in the Metro this week, that puts San Jose firmly at the bottom of the list of America’s twenty largest cities in number of pools per capital; so much for touting us as “The 10th Largest U.S. City” on the logo.
The cash-starved Parks and Recreation Department has hired a firm to conduct a study and develop a plan for meeting the city’s aquatic recreation needs. Never mind that such a plan will probably cost more than fixing the broken-down pools we already have. Why do we need to have an outside firm prepare a study and plan? Don’t we already have a city department that is supposed to deal with issues of parks and recreation? It’s not rocket science. Build more neighborhood pools and repair or refurbish the broken ones!
The city council better get on this and solve it before next summer. Instead of wasting time and money rearranging the downtown to suit race enthusiasts that obviously have better things to do than come to San Jose, the council should be looking out for the needs of the town’s citizens. If the “big plan” is to attract more families to move here, then pools and recreation centers ought to be on the front burner—not an annual weekend break for wealthy visitors courtesy of city taxpayers who would rather be swimming with their kids throughout the months of summer.
It’s just like a flaming socialist to demand that everyone replicate the upbringing that they had then demand that the city pay for it.
The “city better get on this” exclamation is absurd. Are you the least bit aware that San Jose has THE worst roads in Calif. inspite of the ever glorious Norm Mineta. The city needs to focus on the basics like roads, street lights, sewers etc. before they become the day care provider for residents.
Oh yeah, don’t make this a class issue. Rise up working class and claim your swimming whole from the rich who conspire to keep you running through sprinklers and fountains.
Kind of absurd Jack.
Pools in San Jose? What a great idea but it won’t fly.
It’s not the pools. It’s the process.
First problem: Hobnobbing with international race car drivers, rubbing shoulders with Paul Newman and fluffing your feathers on TV before the world as leader of the host city doesn’t offer the same rush and ego boost as grinding through the process of providing kids with a healthy and more enjoyable summer.
Second problem: Investing in kids having fun, staying off the streets, exercising, learning and having an opportunity to enjoy what we did? …how’s that going to fill the bars, restaurants and clubs of this great downtown and help the city meet its “revenue/visitor/hour” goals?
Third problem: A Champ car race we can do. Pools; that’s way to costly. It use to be that a city would look around the country, find the specs and plans for a pool that fit there needs and budget, bid it, build it, fill it, and dive in. Now we have to research and hold meetings, design and hold more meetings, come up with innovative ideas and hold more meetings, have more meetings to decide who should be in the meetings, meetings to evaluate the process, meeting to make sure it’s uniquely “our” design, press releases meetings, progress report meetings, inspection summary meetings, etc. etc. etc. And each council member must have a pool in his or her district. Each has to be unique to that neighborhood, or better than the other. Then there’s the project billboard with all the credits, contractors, designers, architects, gardeners, sign painter, lead accountant, meeting coordinator, etc. etc. A pool is not just a pool. Not in this town.
Sarcasm aside, this city is a great place to live… (if you have money). It has so much potential for being better; better for our kids, grand kids, visitors, everyone. I still have hope that this city will put politics on hold and do the peoples business in a simple, transparent, straightforward manor. And certainly pools for the kids should be high on the list of the people’s business.
The City that Knows Process, that’s San Ohaze.
You’re right, Jack—we don’t need an expensive study by an outside consultant. Fix the broken pools and build some more. What’s to study?
Can our council and Parks & Rec . Dept. get any lamer?
For a good example of what San Jose should be doing, take a look at the Morgan Hill Aquatic Center at http://www.mhaquaticscenter.com/. Morgan Hill’s population is ~33,000 compared to San Jose’s ~900,000. We would need 27 aquatic centers in San Jose to match Morgan Hill’s level of service.
Living in South San Jose, we are fortunate Morgan Hill allows us non-residents so poorly served by our own city to use their center.
What’s the point of having swiming pools for kids when all of the diving boards have been taken away by the money-grubbing lawyers?
Jack, I never set foot in a city-run pool when I was a kid, but did pay like 30 cents to get into the pool at Hoover Jr. High during the summer months back in the 60’s.
I’m assuming that the SJUSD has for quite some time not had the funds to open these pools for the summer.
Again, apathy is in play here. So many more homes have pools than did when we boomers were kids, so except for those who don’t have access to a private pool, nobody cares much about this issue, I think.
I don’t even know where the city’s public pools are. The only one I remember was the long-gone indoor one at Alum Rock Park. Now there’s a topic for discussion, the oldest city park in the state that has been all but forgotten and whose attractions have all been dismantled and/or eliminated. That park used to be buzzing every weekend and now you go there and it’s a ghost town. I don’t really mind it that way, but it’s just another example of something that gave this town some “there” but there hasn’t been any there there for over 3 decades now. A testament to the skewed priorities of councils past and present.
Who is afraid of Mayor Watch???
Who’s afraid of Mayor Watch?
Has to be Victor, who told a council member in Sunnyvale to wear a phony public safety uniform.
ps, Reed voted against most requests for park money going to schools, instead he wanted, voting in secret, to be transferred to the Grand Prix.
Why is Victor not smiling in Metro??
could it be, could it be,
he’s afraid of Mayor Waych??
Jack:
Your emotional rant is a good vehicle to ask the question: What is it a City should be doing? In this case, its build and opperate a PNR department that has pools in an irrigated desert (San Jose).
But on a larger sense, the priorities of what a City should do is reflected in the elected leadership via the voters. When Ron Gonzales was elected (and by proxy the rest of the council for the most part) the electoriate spoke and said they wanted social spending….housing, SNI, lots of other free stuff. The priorities were not fixing things, keeping things working, etc.
By far and away the largest city expenditure is payroll, mostly for public safety. Beyond that, few dollars remain. This next election should be a good reflection on the electoriate if they want more social spending (Chavez) or whatever Reed represents.
The study is for ALL parks, recreation activities since politicians for decades have given their developer campaign contributors 1) private park tax credits for private recreation / facilities reducing impact fees to pay for needed park acquisitions 2) discounted park impact fees – 70% of 2001 land values and 3) use tax funds to pay for Grand Prix, professional sports teams etc for Silicon Valley Chamber’s economic development while Parks and Rec is underfunding and understaffing
PRNS Study conclusions have already been determined – 1) Outsourcing with Living Wage contracts – pools, parks and recreation facilities to Non profits who will charge Park and Rec User fees to pay for maintenance 2) millions more capital construction bonds to make up for decades of undercharging developers
San Jose has 660 full time park employees or 0.73 ratio San Francisco, with a population of 744,230, has 1,077 park employees or 1.45 per 1000 people. Twenty-six U.S. cities are ahead in park employee percentages and only four have larger populations than San Jose.
http://www.almadentimes.com/current/all_sides.htm
Who has more and better parks and recreation ? – everyone except San Jose
Don’t hold your breath for measurable economic benefits for Grand Prix or other Silicon Valley Chamber economic development events – next time you go to Grand Prix, Arena sports or concerts look at luxury boxes for our politicians and friends partying on your taxpayers dollars
We now know where San Jose’s Civic Priorities are and uncounted millions of taxpayers dollars a year go – Not Public Interest but – Political Careerists, Lobbyists and Special Interests benefit
Jeffery # 9 Apparently you have never looked at SNI projects – code enforcement, install and repair streets, sewers, sidewalls, crosswalks , traffic calming for senior / children safetty, new parks, recreation, clean up blighted homes, stores etc – when you declare a neighborhood blighted you are legally required to fix the blight – SNI priorities are fixing things, keeping things working, etc. for neigbhorhoods that have been neglected for decades
http://www.strongneighborhoods.org/RedevelopmentPlan.pdf
What social spending projects are you talking about? – low income housing required by law is not SNI – lots of other free stuff like Music in Park paid by redevelopment
What is questionable is diversion of redevelopment money to Chamber economic development spending on Grand Prix, tax subsidies to large developers etc with no measurable results San Jose still compares badly to other cities after of decades and billions of questionable tax giveaways ( ops – economic development )
Let’s see…if you want to go to a swimming pool downtown you can pay $$ to join the San Jose Athletic Club. Or you can visit our lowly village next door, Santa Clara, which has four public pools including an international swim center. Or any other city.
My rant…if I hear anymore about the importance of neighborhoods by City Hall and mayoral candidates I will (fill in the blank). Too much talk, not enough action.
I look forward to hearing about potholes, swimming pools and crossing guards for another decade
Zzzzzz…
Dadid D # 3: Great “Third problem” summary!!! Our council and staff are so completely inept that they need some consultant to tell them how to go to the bathroom.
Who is this incoherent anonymous person—#8 in this particular series of posts—who keeps cropping up? He hates Victor, so mayhaps he’s a Cindynista.
IMHO, strong neighborhoods don’t board up their pools for lack of maintenance. If that is what SNI is, it is an utter failure as is the mayor and city council majority that allowed this to happen.
I’m sure boss Dean has a beautiful pool in her backyard in Chicago and that is all that matters.
J.M. O’C #13 completely inept? Maybe, but I don’t think so.
Under the thumb of a micro managing mayor, a smart but arrogant enforcer and a city manager who only did what he was told, when he was told and how he was told… the staff pretty well fell in line clerking the mayor’s agenda. It creates to some extent in the council and for sure in staff an environment of restricted initiative and low self confidence; and in turn a pretty inept organization.
Under a different mayor, city manager and management style staff professionals would most likely make you quite proud. You would see quality work and initiative bubble up from within and things would move more smoothly.
They would not only be able to go to the bathroom on their own, but they would probably get good work done on the way to and from. It’s pretty basic stuff.
Poolgate needs an outside investigator, followed by two blue ribbon committees, five open public hearings, 35 staff recommendations and when that fails, we can have a grand jury investigation, followed by a District Attorney indictment.
There is more than one way to keep cool during the summer.
#7.. good blog
I remember the Natatorium at Alumn Rock Park as a child, there also was one at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. San Jose did a much better job of providing its citizens with swimming holes a hundred years ago, then they do today. In the 20’s, my father learned to swim down in the Guadalupe and at the round swimming pool at Ryland Park. You had to wear a swimsuit at the park, whereas in the river all the boys swam nude. He had his first pair of “new’ shoes stolen there. He was about ten at the time and one in a family of twelve.
Are the swimming pools open to the public at local public high schools? Perhaps the city could work out a temporary partnership with them?
I remember in the 50’s and 60’s any kid with a swimming pool was everybody’s best friend for the summer. I only knew two kids that had a pool, and one was a girl, so I had few options. We would ride our bikes to the other side of town, pay 50 cents and go swimming at either the Elks Club or the San Jose Swim and Raquet Cub. Nowdays children don’t want to swim at a friends pool unless it has a heated spa, waterfalls and a slide. Each generation will have their own special story to tell about their summer swimming fun. Cheers,
Who is John Michael O’Connor? Obviously a Reedite and also I think is his “office” downtown is the Hot Dog Stand near the B/A Building.
Sorry to stray completely off topic, but here’s a news flash of interest for the Prius huggers on this board.
Turns out that the Emperor of carbon neutral has no clothes. Talk about inconvenient!
Yet again we are treated to another most delicious example of limousine liberal hypocrisy.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm
If I were to bet, I’d bet that Emperor Al has probably has a fever right about now.
Swimming pools?
If you look around this valley there are creeks & perc ponds aplenty. Too bad they’re not available for recreation, even with proper maintenance and supervision. If I’m not mistaken only at Almaden Reservoir has the Water District allowed swimming the stored water.
It’s also too bad the planners of the Guadalupe River Park pretty much overlooked the downtown park’s namesake feature, the river itself. Imagine the park with swimming holes, flycasting ponds, waterfront restaurants and cafes.
Good ol’ JMC who refused an offer for documents about his friend and mentor, Chuck Reed, and sells the hot dogs outside of the B/A building, and got two votes when he ran for city council, forgets that Reed man represented clients according to Mayor Watch that are a bit sleazy on product liability. Perhaps JMC got the Reed representation when he sold those 23 day old hot dogs last year.
#25 Would that pool be full or empty ?
You are a mean one, Mr. O’Connor
You’re a Reedite and that is true
You do Chucky’s bidding because you think he will appoint a two vote council candidate to something, and you refuse to review any facts,
Mr. OConnor
the three words I can use to describe you are and I quote
shill, stooge, and silly
Yes, SNI does do somethings, but they also do the study, meeting, study, focus group, community meeting BS that is all too common in SJ.
The City does spend its 20% RDA fund on housing, that is true but it also spends way more than that.
The City also spent money sending a delegation of RDA folks to Mexico to study what an Authentic Mexican shopping center looks like. (This was prior to the Tropicana deal) The Tropicana merchants showed up and said they can show the city what an Authentic Mexican Shopping Center looks like, just drive down to Tropicana. I thought it was hillarious.
#22,21,19 I have no idea what medicine you should be on that you are not taking but please get off this blog and quit going on about things that never, ever make sense. Why you are now insulting John Michael makes no sense either. He’s not a “Reedite” anymore than you are. He’s not a Cindyista either. Either say something that makes sense or go away.
we don’t want to
Here’s a link to a post with some in-depth comparisons to other cities, which makes the civic failure all the more embarrassing.
http://www.sv411.com/?p=66
They omitted the best part of the Metro piece:
“The next time Ron Gonzales lies about a garbage deal, we needn’t waste taxpayer money on a trial … we’ll just throw his fat ass in the nearest pool.”
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/08.02.06/pool-shortage-0631.html
I’m surprised no one has brought up Raging Waters, a water fun theme park in East San Jose near Eastridge:
http://www.rwsplash.com/
In addition to the $16-26 for a ticket, there’s $6 for parking a car and $18 for parking a bus.
Could it be said the other reason why San Jose has placed public pool maintenance at zero priority is that it would take away competition (and city revenue) away from Raging Waters? Just a thought…
Been saying for months that the $4M subsidy should have gone for repair/ replacement of existing pools. However, there would be no city visability with kids swimming . Let’s keep showing road rage by the race car drivers; good example, guys, but geez it made TV coverage and that seems to be what the current city leaders want.
Perhaps the city should work something out with the San Jose Unified and the East Side Union High School District to have the local public high schools open up their pools during the summer. I remember a friend use to be a lifeguard at Silver Creek a few years ago when they opened their pool to the public. I don’t know if they still open their pool in the summer. It seems like a quite reasonable idea.
I think what we need to figure out is how to get those race cars to buzz across the new pool that is built. If they don’t take it fast enough they sink. SJFD rescues them and off they go again. Would make for some GREAT excitement!!!!! Better then the bumps from the first year! Or they can go around and hit all the garbage from the garbage strike!