Justice in the Neighborhood
With spring break and holy week behind us, it is time to talk about the important issue in Webster Groves - the swimming pool. Today I share my annual rallying cry to integrate the community pool, specifically the Webster Groves community pool. Although sharing a school district and array of recreational programs, residents of Rock Hill are not allowed in the Webster Groves community pool (except when accompanied by a Webster Groves resident).
In the wake of segregation, residency restrictions have become common for community pools. Kirkwood, for instance, added residency restrictions when building a new pool eight years ago. Laudably they first approached the contiguous municipalities and offered an “opt in”; residents of municipalities that opted in can use the pool, residents of municipalities that did not cannot. With children the primary users of community pools, school districts are a natural dividing line and municipalities opted in and out along school district lines.
As a resident of Rock Hill, I acknowledge that this is personal. One summer the wound was salted when my daughter joined the Webster Swim Team. Because the team is chronically under enrolled, Rock Hill residents are welcomed. A bonus for team members is that they and their families can use the pool (paying non-Resident fees). I sat on deck that summer and watched in amazement while PTO business was conducted poolside and classroom alliances were forged in the water. Important relationships are formed, but not all the community is at the table (or the pool).
Although there were some quiet conversations between the leadership of Rock Hill and Webster Groves a few years back about the pool, Rock Hill residents have not been invited to share in the cost or the benefit of a community pool. Why? Demographically the two municipalities are distinct. The median household income varies by $13,000 ($60,524 in Webster, $47,860 in Rock Hill) and the racial make up is different. Only 6.4% of Webster Groves’ 23,230 residents are African-American while Rock Hill boasts much more diversity with African-Americans making up 27.4% its 4,765 residents (half of the African-American students that live in the school district are residents of Rock Hill). Are race and class differences that dictate need for separate swimming pools? Last spring Webster announced that a limited number of non-Residents, when sponsored by a Webster resident, could purchase a membership for about $600 (double the resident rate). While certainly not a welcome mat, this is undoubtedly a small step with a huge shadow.
The exclusivity of our pool policies sends a subtle but unmistakable message about what we believe. We lament the “achievement gap”, we march in the MLK parade, but the pool rules bear witness to another set of beliefs. Instead of hand wringing about the impossibility of getting Israel and Palestine to the table, we might have more success a little closer to home.
