We went by the pool in Central Park today and it was drained of water. Wha . . . ? It was only about 100 degrees out there today.
Aaahhhh, I see: “Pool Opens July 1st and closes after Labor Day“. (Note also that in the picture on the website, the pool has no people in it. That’s no coincidence: when there are people in it, it’s jam-packed with people.)
OK, I have an idea: no A/C in city offices until the all the swimming pools open. If the city doesn’t want to open the pool until July 1st, no problem: it’s probably not so hot outside, and I’m sure the desk workers can make do with fans.
And, just in case they decide to do what they did in previous years and open up only half of the pool (I’m not kidding, they roped half the pool off so that a few zillion people were crammed into 50% of the space), then they can do the same thing in city offices: half of the offices can have A/C, half won’t. I’m not sure what to do about the mayor. Maybe give him A/C half the time?
P.S. When open, the pool hours are from 11-3 and 4-7. Of course, this means that city offices should also be air conditioned only during these times.
I can tell you're being sarcastic, but I don't quite get the point. Are you saying that living without a swimming pool is as inconvenient as living without air conditioning?
I've known you for 30 years, and I don't remember you ever going to the pool! I'm not saying you didn't do it, but I know it wasn't a big part of your life. It _certainly_ isn't as big a part of most people's lives as air conditioning is!
Phil,
1. I'm saying that it was damn hot and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to jump into a pool. I was suggesting that the people who decide when the pool is open would make a better decision if they were personally affected by the decision, for example by having it directly tied to their air conditioning.
2. You just have a poor memory. I remember going to the pool with you once!
i simply don't understand opening only half a pool. all the water in the pool gtes dirty even if people are only in half of it, so what could possibly be the point?
i do understand the hours. perhaps it is hard for them to obtain lifeguards, and they do need a break.
but still, july 1? just raise taxes and open it a month sooner.
You make a very good point about the pool decisions being better made if they were linked to personal impact. I also bet that the average socioeconomic status of the people that actually use the pool is lower than that of the people that a)make the decisions about the pool and b)have city offices with air conditioning.
Luke, if it were up to me, I'd raise taxes and provide a lot more services. But most people don't feel that way. Berkeley (where I live) just did some polling so the City Council could decide on what bond measures (if any) are worth putting on the ballot for November, and it looks like they aren't going to do any, because people don't want to pay more in exchange for more services. Among other things that therefore won't be funded: fixing the city's public pools.
People without daytime jobs might want to go to the pool anytime, and people with free weekend days (including kids) would love to go to the pool on weekends. But the bang-for-the-buck decision is to open the pools the day summer vacation starts for kids, and close them the day summer vacation ends. A look at the school calendar shows that kids in NYC get out of school on June 26. Pools open July 1. It just doesn't sound that unreasonable.
All of this said, I, too, think NYC should probably cut funding somewhere else and open the pools earlier in the summer, even if it means they're only heavily used on weekends. But "somewhere else" would disagree, and, having served on my city's Parks and Recreation Commission, in my experience decisions that came before us were almost never as clear-cut as the proponents of a particular policy suggested it should be. To just make something up off the top of my head, perhaps it is hard to get high school seniors (the cheapest legally available labor pool) to do lifeguard training or to serve as lifeguards during the school year, what with SAT's and all.
Andrew, you sound just like the people who always used to come before the Commission: any decision you don't like is perforce a bad decision, and the people who made it should be punished. I'll be the first (or, in this case, the second or third) person to admit that a lot of decisions ARE bad decisions…but not all of them.
Phil,
I don't want to punish the city officials, I just don't think they need air conditioning. After all, it's not so hot that people need swimming pools, so I'm sure the office workers can make do with fans.
Andrew –
It depends on what they are doing in those offices. I'm in a government office where if it isn't freezing outside, you *need* the airconditioner, and not just for comfort. See, the office is filled with these little space heaters that are on all the time (aka computers), which will start to malfunction if they get too hot. So it can be 80 degrees out, and the airconditioners have to be on; I'll leave it to wiser head to decide if that weather justifies extending the season the public pool is open.
Phil –
I've paraphrased your explanation of why R/S-plus is better than Matlab more times than I can recall. Thanks for the conversations.
I'm not about to wade into the middle of the pool debate, but I'm intrigued to hear from Phil why R/Splus is better than matlab.
Good thinking. And gov't offices shouldn't have heat in the winter because the pool isn't open and heated.
Enlightened Duck and Anonymous, I think that is probably a different Phil.
Andrew, it's clear from your post that you were being sarcastic — your complaint is that the pools are not open on June 10, not that it's unreasonable to use a/c when the temperature is 100F.
Why stop at demanding pools that are open anytime it might be hot? Demand public hot tubs that are open when it's cold!
Like 'anonymous' I'm intrigued as to why R is better than MATLAB. I use R (at least some) and am in an office full of MATLAB users.
Why should a city provide a pool?
Why not join a private club?
Or let private operators run public pools for a subsidized fee? Surely they would open them sooner.
There is some loose thinking here…
Phil –
My apologies. I figured Phil in Berkeley, put a heavy prior on it being a statistician, and made my assumption. Eh, oh well…perhaps I should stay true to my frequentist roots:)