Long Beach will study the feasibility of constructing a public pool in North Long Beach—a historically underserved area with the least access to such facilities—after unanimous approval by the council at its Tuesday, Aug. 3 meeting.
“This is a climate issue. It’s a neighborhood quality issue. It’s a quality-of-life issue. It’s an invest-in-youth issue. It’s an equity issue,” said Councilmember Rex Richardson, who authored the item. “It’s time for us to put a flag in the ground.”
The Northside 90805 area is the city’s largest zip code—containing areas of both the 8th and 9th council districts and the most children of any Long Beach zip code, according to the agenda item.
Despite this, North Long Beach residents, particularly those in District 9, are geographically farther from public pools than any other zip code in the city—4.57 miles from the nearest public pool. No other district has a distance of more than 3.5 miles from a public pool and several have pools in their district.
Recently, a video circulated on Nextdoor of Black and brown children breaking into a North Long Beach apartment complex to play in its pool. In the video, a man warns the children that he’ll have to call the cops if they don’t leave.
“I saw children having to break the law to enjoy resources and benefits that other people in our area, in our city, take for granted,” said Renette Mazza, president of the Hamilton Neighborhood Association.
“Being a single mother years ago, I barely had enough money for a gallon of milk, let alone bus fare to a pool miles away,” she said.
Three recreational pools exist in North Long Beach: at the YMCA, Pools of Hope and Jordan High school, none of which are public.
In recent weeks, conversations about public pools have come with added contention as the council waits for Coastal Commission approval on the $85 million revitalization of the Belmont Pool on the coastline.
In a letter to the council, resident Anna Christensen called on the City to get more public input on the project and to require public approval of the design and location. The pool is funded through Tidelands Oil funds, which can only be used on certain projects.
Many contend that the funds for the revitalization would be better spent on closing equity gaps.
Councilmember Suzie Price, who has long been an advocate for programs like the Junior Lifeguards and rowing teams, voiced full support of the item.
“We are a beach city with a pathetic access to public pools,” Price said. “The children in this city need to know how to swim. Every single one of them needs to know how to swim.”
Councilmember Al Austin, who signed onto the item, proposed a few potential locations for the pool: an unprogrammed 3.5-acre park in Carmelitos, Davenport Park and Ramona Park, but told staff to keep their options open.
“When given opportunities, young Black kids and brown kids can certainly rise to the occasion and take full advantage of the aquatics experience that is a void [as] of today,” Austin said.
City staff will look into potential locations for a public pool in North Long Beach and report back in 120 days on the cost of developing a pool and associated operating costs.
This suggestion was presented by CARP (Citizens About Responsible Planning) during our appeal with CCC. In our negotiations we suggested two community pools in underserved neighborhoods. Initially we had little (zero) response from council and P&R contacts and a strong NO from their legal representatives, so it’s good to see this move forward. Every effort to support our neighborhoods in a more equitable fashion makes quality of life better in Long Beach!
The operating costs for the BBAC was reported to be over $2M annually. Certainly we can justify the benefits ands costs of these community pools.