NYC Pools-Strictly for Swimmers Only

The other day we decided to go to the pool. It didn’t go as smoothly as planned. Here’s what I wrote while baking OUTSIDE the pool. Consider this your PSA.:

The weather was fine so we headed to the pool. In the winter it’s an ice skating rink but in the summer it’s an awesome, free swimming pool.

But there’s a catch. Firstly you can only go in if you have a lock and a guy at the door wants to see it before you go in. Then you cannot take anything onto the pool deck besides a towel and your bad sweaty self. It’s a big round concrete cancer creator, there’s no shade and not a solitary tree overhanging for any protection. You can’t take your bag in, you can’t wear a hat and by God you better be wearing swimwear or you can take your bad self elsewhere.

I knew about the lock, but I’d totally forgotten that you couldn’t sit by the pool and watch your kid unless you wear a swimsuit and sit in the blazing sun, without a hat. I wonder what the American Cancer Council would have to say about that! NYC is endangering lives with their policies!

So after having a heated discussion with the girl, who immediately said “Do you want to speak to my supervisor ?” as if to intimidate me, I said “YES, I do.” He sauntered over. I guess he was about 25 and he was hostile too. All I wanted to know was why couldn’t I sit by the pool and watch my kid? And the only thing they could tell me was because it’s the rules.Rinse and repeat, no real explanation. But why is it the rules? Why is there no shade? Why MUST I wear a swimsuit onto the pool deck even if I’m not swimming. I wanted to read my book and be nearby while Miss Gremlin swam.

After a few more minutes he just walked away, having decided he’d given me the rules and his job was done, so I turned the the girl and said “So where would you like me to sit? ” “Outside” she answers, “Or inside the building.” I very nicely asked if I could sit up the top on the deck to which she changed her tune immediately, like it was her escape from the crazy white lady who don’t know the rules and said “yes you can!”  Well alright, great, I’ll sit up there. She smiled with relief when I didn’t get snarky or mean and I headed upstairs.

As I was settling in, a guy came up to see what I was doing because there were barricades across the entrance which I just went around… he started towards me then thought better of it, I guess it was my ‘don’t fuck with me’ demeanor.

Finally I relaxed in the sunshine, with my hat, ate my salad and watched Miss Gremlin frolicking in the water somewhere down there. I wasn’t worried, she’s water safe and there were 8 life guards on duty.pool deck

pool 2

pool 3

But I may still send a letter to City Parks, I want to know why these ridiculous rules exist. They don’t make any sense at all.

 

Comments 6

  1. I hate dealing with the “I don’t make the rules, I just work here, I’m not about to do anything to help accommodate you” mentality. A little ‘tude with your Melanoma Ma’am.

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  2. Skin cancer/carcinoma, the kind that will kill you is rampant in the US. I was treated just this past year for my third occurrence and cannot go to the NYC pools because of their ridiculous no-hat policy will certainly bring me one step closer to the carcinoma that will kill me.

    Maybe its time to start a petition that would at least allow all of us light-skinned freckly types to have equal access to our tax supported public pools.

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