Decisions, Decisions

 

“Why are Maryland pools so boring?” asked a poster on the Columbia Reddit.

Below are images of a typical pool from the Cleveland Ohio area, versus a typical pool from Columbia Maryland. What gives?

The poster, relatively new to the area, uses a pool from Rocky River, Ohio to compare to the Clemens Crossing pool in Columbia. 

It’s an interesting discussion. I left Cleveland a very long time ago, but I found the Rocky River pool to be nothing like my neighborhood pool in Cleveland Heights. Cumberland Pool was built in 1927 and is still in use.

Cumberland Pool, Cleveland Heights

As I watched the conversation progress, I had a realization that we were talking about something which was the topic of much conversation in the past. 

Do you remember the word Aquaplan? The year was 2011, and CA held a number of community meetings about the future of the pool system. I attended one of them. Shocking, I know. There was quite a bit of emotional pushback from these meetings, which I wrote about in Mortality (Not What You Think).

Essentially, CA was asking folks to compare our current neighborhood pool system to one in which there were fewer, but “cooler”, pools throughout Columbia. More destination pools with more amenities.

But absolutely fewer pools.

It’s a basic message. We have X amount of money. We can have lots of basic neighborhood pools or a limited number of fancy pools/water experiences. You choose.

I don’t know if CA itself had a preference but my guess would be that they preferred consolidation. It might have felt like a more efficient use of funds. Fewer places to maintain and staff to schedule.

As is the usual Columbia way, many folks decided that CA was trying to take something away from them. And a significant number of people insisted we should have both: neighborhood pools and destinations pools and why wasn’t CA already doing that? 

I don’t know what the official conclusion was from all of this but it seemed to me that a bunch of people got angry and nothing happened at all. Not to decide is to decide, as they say.

There is, in my opinion, a very good reason to maintain neighborhood pools and that has to do with access. But we do need to understand that is a choice. 

Last night I came across a disgruntled FB post about how nothing is going on at the Lakefront anymore. There used to be something almost every night of the week, the poster wrote. It struck me that the experiences the poster described were very much like the many, basic neighborhood pools. The events were plentiful but not terribly expensive to put on.

In recent years CA appears to have consolidated their events funds to produce fewer Lakefront events that are more elaborate? expensive? and that their current focus is on that kind of programming. They have rebranded it as Lakefront Live. Summer events at the Lakefront used to be like water running out of the tap, one continuous stream throughout the warmer weather. Now they are specially themed and curated. 

It may be very well the same amount of money but simply spent differently. And there are good points to each approach. You are welcome to your own preferences.

Change does not necessarily mean malfeasance. 

I have been amazed over the years at how many people think they are experts at how the Columbia Association allocates funds. I’m certainly no expert. But allocating funds involves making choices. Lots of neighborhoods pools or fewer “cool” pools. Lots of low cost Lakefront events or fewer events which offer a higher quality experience overall. 

Yes we’d probably like to have everything. Does your family budget work like that? Mine doesn’t. This is why I tear my hair out when CA Board members complain about CA expenditures, campaign on reducing the annual assessment, all while insisting that pool membership should be free. 

I do not know the answer. I did not grow up here, I wasn’t here at the beginning. I do think that decisions about our community should be made by the old and the new, and informed not just by our history but by the world we live in today. How do we do that with the resources we actually have?

Village Green/Town² Comments