Embattled pool can't stay afloat

[ccharles000]

THE SUBJECT LINE on the e-mail simply reads, "The End."

As in, the end of the Valley Club, the small, sleepy Huntingdon Valley community pool that was thrust into the national spotlight this past summer, allegedly for discriminating against minority campers who'd signed up to swim there for 90 minutes each week.

Yesterday, Valley president John Duesler announced that the club's board of directors had voted 5-1 to file this week for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

For months, it had been rumored that Valley would not survive the costs associated with legal proceedings and lawsuits filed on behalf of young campers from Creative Steps Day Camp, a city summer camp whose members are minorities.

Campers' families alleged that their children's pool privileges had been revoked because the club's overwhelmingly white members didn't want children of color at the small, suburban club.

However, in an e-mail yesterday addressed to club "friends and families" announcing the bankruptcy, Duesler said that legal costs were only partly to blame for the club's financial woes.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20091114_Embattled_pool_can_t_stay_afloat.html

[KamaAina]

1. Priceless!

Bigotry does not pay!

[Fire1]

2. Hit em where it hurts. The wallet. n/t

[alphafemale]

3. Oh-Goody!! Now yu gone and Dun it!! Now NOBODY gets to swim.

Maybe somebody else will buy it though.

On a more serious note, there are towns down here in the south that filled in community pools with dirt or concrete just so interracial swimming wouldn't occur.

The powers shut down a train between Savannah, GA and the beach area Tybee Island, GA (about 12 miles or so) after integration...you see most of the coloreds ///sarcasm/// didn't have automobiles at the time and relied on public transportation.

Even as late as the mid '80's, when I arrived here as an OH transplant, most of my black friends told me they had NEVER been to the beach. I was absolutely gobsmacked by this.

I'm glad to say that it's no longer quite that bad 25 years later. The Savannah area especially is very pleasing shade of blue and pretty damn tolerant as well.

But then...half the downtown real estate is owned by an Arts College.

[Statistical]

4. The dollar vote.

[-..__...]

5. Pool's Closed...