Saturday, August 11, 2007

DAILY SHUTTLES TO CARRY WESTLAKE KIDS TO CITY POOLS

From Los Angeles Garment & Citizen

smf opines: This article contains a number of factual inaccuracies …but the spin from the mayor's office and the activists makes one feel that good things may be happening!

08/10/2007 - The city will provide a free daily shuttle service between the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex at 3rd and Bixel streets in the Westlake district west of Downtown and municipal swimming pools in the Glassell Park district and Griffith Park to the north.

The office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently announced the shuttle service, which will operate vans through the Labor Day holiday on September 3. Parental consent forms will be required for any child boarding the shuttles. The vans will take swimmers from Bixel Street on the east side of the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex campus to the Glassell Park Pool at 3704 Verdugo Road on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and to the Griffith Park Pool at 3401 Riverside Drive on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

Sign-up sheets will be available at 12 noon daily at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. Shuttles will depart at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. They will begin their return trips from the Glassell Park and Griffith Park pools at 3:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.

Parents or guardians may ride the shuttle with their children. Adults must be present when the vans arrive back at the school.

Admission to city pools is free for anyone who is 17 years old or younger, senior citizens aged 65 or older, and the disabled. The fee for adults between the ages of 18 and 64 is $1.50. Anyone carrying a Los Angeles library card can swim for free.

“During the hot summer months, every Angeleno deserves the opportunity to cool off in our city's public pools,” said Villaraigosa, who added that the service will be paid for with funds from his office. “This shuttle service will provide Downtown families with access to our state-of-the-art aquatics facilities and with the opportunity to dive into the summer swimming season.”

Residents of neighborhoods around the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex had complained that the facility is unavailable for use by the general public. The pool is filled with clean water but has been shuttered all summer in an area of Los Angeles that has relatively few parks and other recreational facilities, according to activists.

The pool is managed jointly by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks. Officials of both entities have said that a lack of lifeguards led to the decision to keep the pool closed this summer.

Villaraigosa’s office said that city officials and their counterparts at LAUSD are currently in negotiations over ways to provide lifeguards and open the pool to the general public.

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