Jim Crow Still Lives

Don Gray
Special to the Mirror

   Perhaps not whole cloth, the way it was not too long ago, and not to the extent seen in certain parts of the country, but recent developments indicate that the concept of segregation may have been given a new, small spark of life here in the confines of Santa Monica.
   This is not to say that we should expect the sudden appearance of “Whites Only” signs at drinking fountains about town. It could take quite another form; the beguiling, blue shimmering form of a swimming pool, for instance.
   Now, it seems that every time a park is targeted for renovation or remodeling, the idea of including a public pool is floated by a resident or two, tired of having to drive the kids across town in wet suits after classes or recreation at the City’s Municipal Pool.
   And the idea is just as summarily torpedoed: the cost of a pool is high, the cost of needed ongoing maintenance higher, and the cost and risk of liability for pool-related accidents higher still. At the recent Douglas Park renovation, for instance, spirited debates were held over whether to even refill the reflecting ponds and pools that give the park its distinctive character: they were an accident just waiting to happen, many contended. (The largest “fly-casting” pond remains empty; a sprinkler is turned inside it on hot summer days.)
   But just recently, when the long-suffering Virginia Park Expansion took yet another staggering turn in search of the goal, the Virginia Avenue Park Expansion Working Group gave it a shove in a highly questionable direction.
   They incorporated into the design a public pool. Not a huge one, mind you, and not deep enough for a diving board, but a pool nonetheless.
   Which is when the ghosts of Jim Crow, and a city of separate (and not necessarily equal) facilities, were evoked. You see, if there is any park less in need of a pool, it is Virginia Park.
   First and foremost, the City is spending some $7 million on the reconstruction of THE City Municipal Pool, which after delays (and increased costs) is nearing completion. And THE Pool is only a few blocks away from the proposed Virginia Park pool.
   Additionally, the various advisory groups impaneled over the years have had a pool well down, (if it even appeared at all) on a list of priorities. In a town desperate for open green space, the concrete and plaster of a pool seems the last thing this city needs.
   In this time of fiscal uncertainty, the budget allocated for the park’s expansion will be tight, even without this eleventh-hour inclusion of the pool; group members warned that, with a pool included, the expansion could run over budget while still on paper.
  The park is bordered by nearby residents, who immediately took exception to a public pool with only a five-foot wall to reduce the noise. (THE City pool, for instance, has a sound wall as much as three times as high to insulate the neighbors from the noise pollution.)
   All perfectly good reasons not to have a pool, it would seem. It was only while I was struggling to find a good reason, any reason, really, to include a pool, that a neighbor of mine pointed out what should have been obvious.
   It would be a pool for the “Coloreds.”
   Of course. As the Environmental Impact Report for the project noted, Virginia Park: “best exemplifies the role that a neighborhood park can play in serving the recreation and social needs of the neighborhood.” Besides, it would fit right in with history. As the park for the only significantly minority neighborhood in Santa Monica, having a separate pool there would make perfect sense. After all, the Pico Neighborhood is the only part of town where, in many current residents’ lifetimes, people of color were allowed to own their own homes. Or rent an apartment, for that matter.
   Now others, upon hearing this theory, have summarily dismissed it, even acted shocked, or offended. After all, that couldn’t happen. Not now. Not here, in Santa Monica.
   Couldn’t it? Think about it. Think hard.
   And maybe, even if you don’t come up with that as the reason behind including a pool in the Virginia Park design, you can at least recognize the potential the project has. The potential to divide the youth of this city, not unite them. The potential to add to the long-time misunderstanding of a neighborhood by its local government. The potential to evoke a time in our recent past, however shameful, that we should resist the temptation to forget, and should instead remember. But only to learn from.
   The plan for the Virginia Park Expansion comes before the Santa Monica Planning Commission on Wednesday, Dec. 19. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. (See related story, Top Stories page.)