Late yesterday, shots rang out at the Carver Pool. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because of the whole mess involving the funding for this very same pool. A recent article in the Albany Journal points out that based on the cost of operating the pool annually and the average number of kids who use it each day, it costs around $60 per kid per day to run the pool. Now, it’s serving as a shooting range for gangbangers here in Albany.
Now, let’s be fair. First, APD isn’t sure just yet if it’s gang related, so gangbangers may not have had anything to do with it. Second, the city funding it had nothing to do with the shots being fired either. This was an incident that may well have happened regardless of where it was.
Here’s the thing though. We’re paying this insane sum of money per child each day and parents are going to have to now add “get shot” onto their list of potential issues of letting a kid go swimming? That list should only be things like “drowning” and “sun burn”, not this kind of thing. And yet, the city will still drop money on keeping this pool open, with little to really show for it.
You see, the Boys Club offered to allow the kids to swim in their pool, and was willing to transport them as well. Everyone wins on that one, but nope…the Carver Pool had to remain open despite the costs to taxpayers. We will keep the Carver Pool open, despite the fact that the money could have been better spent on something like…oh, I don’t know…more police, new training for existing police, new equipment to help them catch people who shoot folks at the local pool…you know, silly stuff.
It’s sad when crime happens at someplace that’s primarily for kids. It’s sad when people get hurt by what may be gang violence. What’s really sad is that the City is still funding something where people may be hurt by gang violence, when we really can’t afford it in the first place.
