Pools and recreation centers are needed in southern Dallas

by Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

I just came across an editorial from the Dallas Morning News that talks about the budget decisions that the Dallas City Council will have to make.

While it is true that the City Council is going to have to make some difficult decisions, the article is looking at the wrong items. I may have a different opinion than council on the necessity for bill pay stations, but pools and rec centers are needed.

Most affluent neighborhoods are home to many families that have their own personal pool. I would guess that a few of those same residents have basketball hoops and exercise rooms as well. There's no 24-Hour Fitness in South Dallas or Pleasant Grove, just so you know.

In southern Dallas, there are very few families with pools and other centers for recreation. Other than a scattering of YMCAs, which are usually at capacity, there's not much cheap recreation. Oak Cliff and South Dallas have one YMCA each. Southeast Dallas? No YMCAs. Where are the kids going to go?

I wonder if they read this line item in the budget workshop report put together by city staff with respect to the pools (on page 119). It reads:

The 135,000 participants who visited these facilities in the past will not be served and the opportunity to conduct the 1,650 Teach A Child To Swim lessons will be lost.

The editorial is also written in a condescending tone which I don't appreciate; I doubt the 135,000 citizens that use the pools would either. Closing of city pools has been a constant drumbeat of the DMN for some time. They wrote a similar article in July of 2008 (payment required).

When you close rec centers, you also close all of the programs for kids and seniors. For kids, this is their only safe haven from the perils of their neighborhood.

This runs counter to their "north-south project" for which the DMN is advocating. Idol time is a danger to our children; the pools and rec centers need to stay open. I know of 135,000 people that feel the same way.

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Shawn Williams, says:

I'd like to see 24 Hour Fitness move into Southern Dino. There are so many folks that I know who drive to Cedar Hill from Oak Cliff and Southwest Dallas.

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6 months ago
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Kay Leaks, says:

As usual, Michael is right on target. When there are no pool or rec centers for the kids and they get in trouble, who do we blame? The kids, of course. Actually, we need to be looking at ourselves--I remember summers in Oak Cliff and how much I loved going to the Lisbon elementray school swimming pool as well as the pool at Glendale Park. Summer isn't summer without a public pool for those who don't have their own--which includes at least 135,000 people, as Michael said.

I agree--keep pools and rec centers open in southern Dallas.