As you may have heard, we have succeeded in at least getting the city to plan for a 50 meter, 8 lap pool with a max depth of 7ft at Forest Park Pool.
> The city heard you. We heard the community, and we acted accordingly,” Beck said. She credited the collaboration between the Fort Worth Parks Department, Mayor Mattie Parker, and city management
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> Beck
Councilperson Beck can't be faulted for jumping in the spotlight here but it's disappointing that she's here again advocating for her colleagues rather than her constituents again.
The reality is that it's all of you who showed up, made posters, called your rep, and signed the petition who are most responsible for prodding city council to advocate for us and get in front of the city admin steamroller. So congratulations to all of you! And yes, thanks to city government for at least starting to step up – albeit after repeatedly bouncing us with gate-keeping and disinformation tactics.
Beck and Parks Director Zavala held their listening session – but when are we going to get a better overall aquatics plan? What is Parks doing to rebuild our trust after years of demolishing pools and mismanaging the few that we have?
> There are people who are really passionate about aquatics so the next step in this process is to reach out to them about how to enhance either the facility or the programming once it is redone.
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> Beck
More oversight is clearly needed BEFORE the pool is redone. The budget here has run from $7.5 million to $11 million – a 46% increase – per pool. The city is now planning to build the same footprint at Stop Six – but wouldn't different amenities make better sense that separate but equal? We want equity for our city and that means listening to what neighbors want!
We need a better vision for aquatics in our city and we need better management. Before this campaign, the city didn't have a listing for the Forest Park Pool's hours. There's still no sign on Forest Park Boulevard to indicate that there's a pool. And Zavala's liable to turn most of the park into a parking lot.
As Fort Weekly put it after the listening session...
> Fort Worth has two public pools to its name, plus a partnership with City of Fort YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth that lets residents use its outdoor pool.
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> Dallas [...] offers 17 pools and a city-run water park. [...] Austin has 32 pools and 11 splash pads. [...] El Paso, whose population is roughly 25% smaller than Fort Worth’s, had five public pools open this summer, with seven more under construction.
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> “Somewhere I guess we got our eye off the ball,” Zavala said.
See the articles here:
- https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article256091537.html
- https://fortworthreport.org/2021/12/01/city-of-fort-worth-to-keep-olympic-sized-pool/
- https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/government/elected-officials/contact
Or in our Dropbox via our link collection:
https://app.singlelink.co/u/chrisinfairmount
Thanks again and more soon!
Chris in Fairmount