No Pool For You!

Dismantling Neighborhood Lifelines: Are Dallas’s Pool Closures Pushing the Poor into a Corner?

By Shane Shipman & Grok | August 22, 2025

In Dallas, the summer heat is relentless, and for many families, especially in low-income neighborhoods, community pools aren’t just a luxury—they’re a lifeline. These pools, often modest concrete oases built decades ago, offer kids a safe place to cool off, learn to swim, and build community. But by 2028, all nine of Dallas’s community pools may be gone, phased out over three years as part of a plan to address a $36.5 million city budget shortfall. The catch? Seven of these pools sit south of I-30, in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, where resources are already scarce. The city’s solution—new aquatic centers and splash pads—sounds promising, but it’s forcing residents to travel distances that are often impractical, raising a troubling question: is this a pragmatic budget fix, or a quiet push to marginalize the city’s most vulnerable?

Aging Pools, Shrinking Budgets

The Dallas Park and Recreation Department argues that the closures are necessary. The pools, built between 1947 and 1975, are crumbling—leaky pipes, broken pumps, and outdated designs drive maintenance costs as high as $60 per swimmer at some locations. Attendance has plummeted, too; Walnut Hill Pool saw just 719 visitors in 2025, down from 3,800 in 2023. Compare that to modern aquatic centers like The Cove at Crawford, which draw thousands in weeks at lower costs per user. The city’s 2015 Aquatic Master Plan, backed by $75 million in bond funds, envisions replacing these relics with nine state-of-the-art facilities—think splash pads and regional centers—that promise efficiency and broader appeal. Sounds like progress, right?

The Cost of Disinvestment

Not so fast. The closures hit hardest in neighborhoods that have already faced decades of disinvestment. Take Martin Weiss Pool in West Oak Cliff, a hub for a mostly Latino and Black community. It shuttered temporarily in 2024 due to a leak, and now it’s on the chopping block for good. Residents like Luis Blanco, who rely on pools like Everglade for affordable recreation, say traveling to distant aquatic centers isn’t realistic. A trek from West Oak Cliff to Kidd Springs Aquatic Center takes 90 minutes on foot—brutal in 100-degree heat, especially for kids or families without cars. The city’s vague promise of transportation programs, as Park Board member Daniel Wood pointed out, feels more like lip service than a solution.

“We’re asking people to go miles for something they used to have in their backyard. That’s not equity.” — Daniel Wood, Dallas Park Board Member

This pattern—dismantling local resources and expecting residents to travel for replacements—feels eerily familiar. It’s like Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) cutting bus routes in South Dallas, watching ridership drop, then using those numbers to justify more cuts. A 2023 analysis noted how DART’s focus on rail over buses hurt low-income riders who depend on local routes. Similarly, the pool closures risk creating recreational deserts in areas where families already struggle. A 2019 study showed that 79% of kids from households earning less than $50,000 lack swimming skills, suggesting demand for pools exists if barriers like poor facilities or access are addressed.

A Question of Priorities

The city insists this is about modernization, not neglect. Board members like Timothy Dickey argue that splash pads and regional centers better serve today’s needs, and the 2015 master plan was built on community input to ensure “fair coverage.” But that plan, now a decade old, doesn’t fully account for how much these neighborhoods rely on their pools as “third spaces”—places where kids gather, parents connect, and communities thrive. Wealthier areas, like those near Tietze Pool, have historically seen upgrades while pools south of I-30 were left to deteriorate. A 2019 analysis flagged this disparity, noting that maintenance dollars often flowed to whiter, affluent neighborhoods. Now, as the city pushes for closures, it’s hard not to wonder: are these communities being squeezed into a corner, forced to compete for access to shiny new facilities that may not feel like theirs?

Who Gets to Benefit?

There’s a deeper issue here, one that echoes broader concerns about who gets to benefit from Dallas’s growth. The city’s budget woes—driven by lower sales tax revenue, appraisal appeals, and a mandate to hire more police—have led to cuts not just in pools but in libraries and recreation centers, too. Yet the decision to prioritize new aquatic centers over maintaining existing ones risks reinforcing a familiar pattern: resources flow to the well-connected or the well-off, while those at the bottom are left scrambling. Park Board President Arun Agarwal’s suggestion to rely on philanthropy or public-private partnerships to save pools only deepens the unease. Private funding often comes with strings, and it’s rarely the poorest neighborhoods that win those deals.

A Different Path Forward

What if the city took a different approach? Instead of closing pools, invest in them—fix the pumps, add shade, make them places people want to go. Attendance might rebound, lowering that “cost per user” the city loves to cite. Or partner with schools to expand swim programs, ensuring kids in every neighborhood learn to swim. Transparency matters, too: residents deserve a clear explanation of why their pools are closing and how new facilities will truly serve them. Without these steps, the closures feel less like progress and more like a slow erosion of community lifelines.

Dallas stands at a crossroads. Will it double down on a plan that, however practical on paper, risks alienating its most vulnerable residents? Or will it listen to voices like Luis Blanco’s, who see their neighborhood pools not as budget lines but as anchors of community? The answer will say a lot about who this city is really for.

Share your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation on social media. Let’s talk about what Dallas’s priorities should be.

Sources: Dallas Morning News (August 21, 2025), D Magazine (2023), and local community insights.