Let’s Go Swimming: An Argument For Building A Public Pool At English Station

by Mark Oppenheimer

(Opinion) It is almost perverse, given the sheer poundage of snow accumulated outside my house, to pick this moment to talk about swimming in the summer months. But because the city is currently deliberating plans to convert the former English Station power plant, on Ball Island (which is bisected by Grand Avenue), to a Mill River Park that includes a swimming area, I say we dive in.

This is one of the best ideas the Elicker administration has had, the kind of idea that should make all of us take a running leap, shouting “Cannonball!” as we submerge. But as with all city plans, there is pushback—as there should be, in a city that values public feedback and a democratic process. So it’s important to examine both the strengths of the plan and the alleged weaknesses.

So, to the upsides.

The English Station currently occupies an 8.6-acre site that is unused, unsightly, and dilapidated. In an area with too much undeveloped property, and with its share of vacant storefronts, bringing activity to the site—bringing laughter, joy, frolicking—is an obvious plus.

With the increased use of this parcel, we have every reason to expect that nearby businesses will benefit, too. The proposed Mill River Park would be within walking distance of much of the Grand Avenue business corridor in Fair Haven and of the Wooster Square apizza district; we could expect visitors to the park to stop off for food or other shopping, either before or after their summer swims. With smart zoning, there could even be profitable concessions on Ball Island, serving the park patrons.

What’s more, despite being a waterfront city, on the Long Island Sound, New Haven has too few public swimming options. There is a historical reason for this: at times when there has been federal money for swimming pools, the government has, understandably, prioritized landlocked cities, bypassing waterfront cities like New Haven, which already have swimming options. And we always had the Long Island Sound.

But while I enjoy Lighthouse Point, which I regularly visit in the summer months, poor planning left the beach severed from the city by Interstate 95; if you don’t have a car, and you live on the other side of the highway, it’s tough to get to. I am all for public buses and bicycles—I use both—but there is no denying that Lighthouse Point is, for many of us New Haveners, not the easy trip it should be. And our public swimming pools, located at high schools, are indoors, which is not where most of us want to swim on hot summer days.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many New Haveners of means take out private pool memberships, like at the Lawn Club or the Woodbridge Club (where my family swims). These clubs may not be snooty or segregated like so many pools of old, but they are beyond the means of many New Haveners. What’s more, for those of us who love to swim in nature, these clubs don’t fit the bill: one is in a dense urban neighborhood, the other in a built-up suburb. How much nicer it would be to swim in close proximity to the river, near a beach or landscaped bank. (In fact, my one objection to the current plans is that they don’t allow for swimming in the Mill River, which should be cleaned up to accommodate swimming in nature; building a chlorinated pool will be great, but it would be even better to have a river option, too.)

In a diverse city like New Haven, it should be part of our public mission to close the racial “swim gap,” the disparity between the white community and communities of color when it comes to swimming skills. New Haven has recently taken strong action to close this gap, including last summer and fall’s joint effort, organized collectively by LEAP, the YMCA, the public schools, and the Roxanne and Henry Brandt Foundation (which has offered to help fund the Mill River initiative) to offer free swim lessons to New Haveners.

Unfortunately, such efforts are limited by the lack of available sites to swim. Besides the LEAP pool and the indoor pools housed by city schools, there is almost no place to take swim lessons (the Long Island Sound is not ideal for lessons). And teaching children to swim is about more than equity: it’s about public health. Black people under age 30 drown at 1.5 times the rate of white people. At the youngest ages, the disparity is even worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “In swimming pools, Black children ages 10-14 years drown at rates 7.6 times higher than white children.”

And when it comes to getting children to swim, it helps if there is an available swimming pool that is accessible, open, and—perhaps most important—fun. Nobody wants to swim indoors in the summer. People would prefer not to hop on the highway. A public swimming pool by the river, open to all New Haveners, and walkable (and even more easily bikeable) from downtown, Fair Haven, and Wooster Square would be a major community gathering hub. It wouldn’t just be a place to learn to swim, but a place one kept swimming, then took one’s children to swim—and run, play, laugh, love.

Reading the comments section on the most recent New Haven Independent article about this swimming-pool plan, one encounters a good deal of skepticism. Some want the money spent on schools or housing; others caution that a pool needs maintenance, and the city has done a poor job of maintaining the pools it has. I take the commenters’ concerns seriously, and I would offer just two rejoinders.

A successful city meets many needs. Of course we need good school funding (and New Haven does, in fact, spend about the state average per pupil), and of course we need affordable housing. But it’s folly to say that until we have all those needs met, we shouldn’t redevelop Ball Island into something beautiful and useful. A good city needs good schools and housing—but it also needs good parks, and it cleans up eyesores. An ambitious city should move forward on all these fronts.

Second, it is true that pools are at great risk of falling into disrepair, a pattern that has been repeated in cities around the country. One administration is proud of its new pool — and 20 years later, another administration, facing a budget crisis, chooses to cut pool maintenance costs, to avoid laying off teachers or firefighters. That’s a real worry. But the answer is not to avoid new public works projects!

Rather, the answer is to build amenities so beloved, so splendid, that the public demands their continued upkeep. As I have written elsewhere, “Whereas today a city is lucky to get a simple rectangle, the old pools had whimsy. In 1931, in Highland Park, Pittsburgh opened a complex with two pools, a waterfall and a sandy beach. Wilmington, Del., had a pool in the shape of a foot. Flint, Mich., had a pool with a sandy beach and a second-story veranda.” If the new Mill River Park becomes the place to be, people will want to keep being there.

New Haven has a chance to do something splendid, something that will be the envy of other cities, indeed of the wealthy suburbs that surround us. Let’s dive in.

Editor’s note: The Board of Alders Community Development Committee is scheduled to host a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18 in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall to consider the Elicker administration’s proposal to acquire the former English Station site. Click here for details.