Summer 2009: What's in store for Manhattan Park Pool? How about these suggested improvements for pool manager Ceasar & Manhattan Park Manager Marion:
Membership Pricing: Will they finally offer us long-time residents and members some extra "perks" such as flexible pricing (pricing plans for weekends-only / weekdays-only / per number of weeks rather than per month for example), and how about some members-only days or hours (for example, no guests unless accompanied by member during certain high-use times, or what about a reduced rate for Manhattan Park Residents?!)
Parents and children all lost out when the age-appropriate activities and games that the old management company used to offer disappeared with the new manager. It doesn't cost very much and it makes everyone's lives at the pool so much better. For example, there used to be a tie-dyed tee-shirt day, a daily musical-chairs game lead by one of the female life-guards, and many fun and well-supervised activities for the little ones out in the grass lawn next to the pool (i.e., away from the lounging parents). Where did they go? Please bring those back, they really made the pool a better place to be because parents could relax a bit and so could non-parents because frankly with games and such it's QUIETER (unintuitive, I know, but when there's cool fun games to be played then there are fewer kids screaming in the water and because the little ones get so tuckered out their parents are bound to take them up for nap time).
How about getting those lifeguards to STOP throwing kids into the pool for "fun"?!
What is fun about that? It's dangerous on many levels: the lifeguard should have their eyes peeled for drownings, and the kids could get hurt and frightened. In fact it's very scary for the little kids too because they get confused by the role of the lifegaurd who is supposed to be saving kids from drowning not throwing them into the pool. please take some time at the beginning of the season to review the rules with your lifeguard staff and ask them to recall that we are a family-friendly place and their job is to keep the pool orderly and safe and fun.
Let's hope we get our one hour of morning swim time back especially for the little ones and their parent or caregiver. This will help everyone in many ways: 1) The cost is minimal (just the cost of one lifeguard for an hour approx. $35) but it will allow the parents of little kids to get there, swim and leave before noon when the suntanners want to come for a little peace and quiet. Rather than delaying opening by half an hour from 11:00 to 11:30 on weekdays, why not open it every day at 10 AM?
Also, the evening time is a great time for working moms and dads to catch a few laps after putting the kids down to sleep so why not help us out and leave the pool open till 9:00 like it used to be in the old days?
The BBQ, chairs and umbrellas are for EVERYONE. Please do not "reserve" a seat for hours on end when you go take a nap. That is not right. Let's hope that Ceasar and his staff is more even-handed in their management of the resources this year so as to avoid the bickering and hurt feelings from the past over common resources. We all pay for usage of these things, please let's try to be fair and share and share alike. How about a Rules & Regulations for Usage of Community Property poster for example clearly legible and posted in the window of the office? At least then there's no excuse for bad behavior.
