MIAMI – A South Miami community activist says the lack of access to a pool and swimming lessons in the city’s African-American neighborhood means black kids don’t have the skills to swim, in some cases costing lives.
Since the 1970s community leaders have been lobbying for a public pool to be built in the historically black, inner city, socially deprived, community around Murray Park.
Yet despite several attempts, the project has been stalled by bureaucracy and local government infighting.
“A pool will help save the lives of little children who every summer swim in the canal and put themselves at risk of drowning,” says Simon Codrington Jr., a parliamentarian for the Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA), a federal program to create opportunities in designated target areas. The Murray Park is one of these target areas.
Codrington adds that over the years he can recall deaths by drowning as children, with little or no water safety education, play in the canal to cool down in the sweltering Miami heat.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black children between the ages of 5 and 14 are almost three times more likely to drown than their white counterparts.
A recent study by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis reported that nearly 70 percent of African-American children do not know how to swim compared to 60 percent of Hispanic children and to 40 percent of Caucasians, putting them at risk for drowning.
Rodney Williams, the owner of a barbershop near the park, says it is frustrating that we are still talking about a pool after all these years. “It’s a dampener not being able to take my son to a local pool.”
Williams agrees with Codrington that the lives of children are at risk because of lack of access to swimming lessons conveniently located in the area. “The kids have to pass two canals to walk to school.”
South Miami mayor Phil Stoddard says the nearest public pool is at A.D. Barnes Park, several miles away from the neighborhood.
“This pool is tightly programmed with limited recreational hours. I can tell you, except when they are bused to the pool during summer camp; kids from the neighborhood don’t go there.”
Those that support the proposed pool believe race has played a part in the entire process.
Richard Ward, a board member South Miami Parks and Recreation Board, says the majority of residents support the project but a vocal minority, who are predominately white, are against the plans. They argue the pool will be too expensive and costly to maintain.
“A city like South Miami should have had pool years ago but due to a minority – but very outspoken opposition – they have stopped this from becoming a reality. Many of these opponents have their own pools so their kids swim in their backyards.”
The campaign for the pool is perhaps an example of perils of lack of agreement in local government. The city lost thousands of dollars because of failure to meet deadlines, city commissioners have rejected several designs and a number of contractors have quit. The city already has spent about $200,000 on a design that will not be used.
Yet recent developments give cause for optimism that the project might actually happen.
In the latest round, Miami-Dade County agreed to offer nearly $1.4 million for the project but plans were stalled after city leaders couldn’t agree the design of the pool and the maintenance costs. When the city failed to meet a December deadline, the county threatened to withdraw the grant.
Last month following a meeting with Stoddard, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office said it would defer taking away the grant which gives the city more time to sort things out.
“The outcome was to give us a six month extension to get the pool under contract and get construction started,” says Stoddard. “The contract is very close to being signed and that will give contractors three-and-a-half months to get started.”
With this latest extension the city aims to hire a design-build contractor, and, for a fourth time, to try to make a deal with a construction company.
Still, Ward, who has been lobbying for a community pool in South Miami since 1969, says “I will believe the pool is going to happen when I see the shovel in the ground.”
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