Y not responsible for pool loss

The Oct. 6 letter “Why trade public space for private?” (The Daily Progress) shows how well-meaning people can reach the wrong conclusion through misplacing blame, overlinking separate decisions and undervaluing problems that need solutions.
It’s true that Crow Pool serves a vital community need in providing indoor pool space for area swim teams. Given the inadequate supply of indoor pools and the University of Virginia’s reluctance to make its Aquatic and Fitness Center more publicly available, there is no sense in destroying Crow Pool upon completion of a new YMCA.
However, as with the softball field controversy, it is inaccurate to attribute the possibility of Crow’s demolishing to the establishment of the Y. We all want more pool lanes, not just a swap of new for old — and the YMCA has never proposed tearing down Crow (or converting the softball fields, for that matter).
Rather, the city seems intent on finding excuses for destroying first Smith Pool and, now, Crow. If the city is hell-bent on turning Crow into a parking lot, it will do so, whether the Y builds in McIntire, at Piedmont Virginia Community College or even out in Crozet. And if that happens, the city will be doing no one any good.
Six-lane Crow is the sole public indoor pool available in Charlottesville for area swim teams, but it does not meet local demand. So, the community has looked at inadequate stopgap measures, such as public funding of bubbles over private outdoor pools. A new 10-lane YMCA pool would more than double the supply of indoor lanes, and once Smith is rebuilt there may even be an adequate supply. But only if Crow remains in operation.
Swimming is a rapidly growing sport and recreational option, but Charlottesville has been slow to provide sufficient public pool space for its citizens, and now has no money to build facilities on its own. (Albemarle County has never built any pool for any of its three high school swim teams, but that’s another story.)
The Y should have already built its pool at PVCC, but chose to chase the white rabbit into McIntire at the city’s (perhaps politically tone-deaf) behest. Let’s hope that doesn’t cost us pool space at either Crow, Smith or the Y in the long run.

Mike Thrift
Charlottesville