Save Urban Pools

When I was a reporter I used to cover plenty of city and county commission meetings. Last fall I went to my first local government meeting, when Louisville’s Fairness campaign called me out to Jefferson County Board of Education meeting, in support of a proposed anti-discrimination rule. Wednesday night – called by the neighborhood association in my old inner-city neighborhood (Phoenix Hill) in opposition to the city’s plan to close two nearby public pools (see “Save Our Pools”), I attended my first ever Metro Louisville Council (the combined city and county commission in Louisville/Jefferson County) meeting.

The recession and resulting declining tax revenues and declining state and federal government support has pushed the Mayor to propose slashing budgets. Mayor Abramson, Louiisville’s mayor for life (14 years total), a Democrat, has proposed maintaining the public safety and community ministry budgets, but slashing the parks (hence, closing fix pools) and human services budgets. My Save Our Pools allies erred by not getting us there earlier, and the smallish Council chambers were fall by the time most of the pools people got there, and so we mainly listened in an overflow room. But many people left as representatives of the organization or program they supported finished their 2 or 3 minutes max of speaking. I was just about the first Save Our Pools supporter to leap into the room, and I found myself with a front row seat as I displayed my green “Save Urban Pools” sign. I listened to a range of reps from worthwhile-sounding human services and arts program (from the Louisville Orchestra to a summer youth jobs program to anti-domestic violence programs to food shelf programs) bemoan heavy cuts in city support, including some 100 percent cuts. Louisville is a segregated city with a relatively large working-class population, struggling schools, and serious healthy disparities. No doubt many of these programs run by non-profit organization do a lot to amerliorate and try to reverse the city’s social problems. The scene reminded me of that I witnessed at the height of the last recession – in Minnesota, in 2004 – when the combination of recession and the Republicanization of Minnesota politics meant that non-profits whose leaders I had met were watching their budgets get slashed – just as donations and foundation and corporate philanthropy were going down and community needs were going up. To the extent there was any logic to this: state and local governments – unlike the federal government – must balance their budgets each year, and so there is no opportunity to do countercyclical economic policy (spending more during recessions). Of course, for a brief moement in MN, a Democrat had proposed keeping some of the extra tax revenue in a super-duper rainy day fund, but taxpayers and government clients will rarely put up with that (people want bigger programs and/or tax cuts during high-revenue good economic times. It’s during these times that state and local governments greatly expand the dollars that give to non-profits for programs/services. When the economy plunges and budgets must be cut, government then slashes non-profit grants and contracts first, because it’s cheaper to cut non-profit aid than it is to lay off government workers in the long and the short run. Government isn’t charged for unemployment compensations when non-profits lay off. And, when non-profits lay off workers, government doesn’t have to toss its investment at first.

You might recall that at the Save Our Pools press conference last month, it was a Republican city council person who supported us and it was government buying gas for city employees off-duty, participularly law enforcement, that we targeted for budget cuts instead of the pool. Since then an aide to a different Republican city council person I know told me that Democrats won’t protest the pool closing because Mayor Abramson controls the Council majority Democratic caucus, at least publicly. Privately, the Council people representing districts with the Breslin Park and Shelby Park pool could lobby the mayor, but they haven’t really done so. This Republican blew hot and cool, sometimes conceding that the Mayor’s parks department may have a good case that so few people use the pools in the summer that they’re not worth maintaining. The Mayor wants Democrats on the Council to support the administration, whereas Republicans may want to emharrass the Mayor, particularly among his natural constituencies. I noticed that our City Council person, a Republican who pledged some solidarity with inner-city neighborhoods during the last heated election campaign, was not there. The City Council person who works most with the Phoenix Hill association was there, but apparently he has offered little support. It turns out that some Democrats and Republicans on the Council had challenged the administration over night because of some apparently unspent and in some cases un –accounted for housing development funds that the city might have to return to the federal government.

Interestingly, after the Save Our Pools coalition had suggested that the city quit buying the now $4/gallon gas for off-city city employees’ cars (as a way to help pay for keeping the pools open)), the city had turned around and asked employees to make a small payment ($30/week?) for the privilege of having the city gas up their cars. I mentioned to the coalition at the time that we might have first checked with the police union, since this would effectively cut the pay of polite officers (who are never really entirely off duty) and other city employees. Sure enough, there were several dozen off-duty police officers at the hearing, apparently there to protest the fee. I start to get a bad feeling from massed police officers protesting government, going back to NYC police – drunk and egged on by soon to e Mayor Giuliani – and their police riot – as they jostled the cars of African American city leaders and leader – and then later assulated an African-American man on the subway.

I only stayed put in the front row with my sign for a bout an hour. Then I felt I had to go, to pack and take care of last-minute details before we week-long trip to Northern California. Because Save Urban Pools reps talked at a previous public hearing, it wasn’t clear whether we would be able to do so again (although several of us were on the sign-up list to talk). Hopefully by the time Cincy or Sue got up talk, there were lots of supporters in the room to hold their signs and clap (if not mine). Comments in the paper suggested that the Council would try to find some money to make up at least a few of the cuts. As I was leaving a supporter of a housing agency lauded our effort, saying we had gotten some media and raised attention at some events. Whether they will found money to save our pools and to fund this commenator’s individual cause I don’t know. Still, it may be a hard winter in Lousiville and across the countries and valuable programs, needed more than ever now, go by the wayside.