Any exploration of this question must first cross through the desert of my aquatic memories.
My family only lived in one home with a pool and it was surely a unique experience.
A solitary rat crouched menacingly from the muddy cement floor of our unfilled swimming pool at 227 Westminster for a few weeks in the fall of 1971.
We'd fearfully spy the rat from our kitchen window, taking heed to follow our mom's advice to keep the door closed lest it enter the Montreal West home we were slated to occupy for a year.
The fate of the forlorn rodent was settled by a rock toss from the 10-year-old hand of rat slayer Teddy Tilden, one of the many heirs to the now-defunct Tilden-Rent-A-Car company.
I rue missing the gory moment when the famous toss doomed Ratticus Swimmingpoolicus. We were thrilled that the lonely, big-tailed vermin was eliminated.
The next occupants of the home didn't clean and fill the pool with water, they just covered up, which seemed wise to us, as who wants an outdoor pool after all?
Living in Westmount after that, we knew nobody with a pool.
To this day they remain rare in the hilly, upscale, downtown-adjacent suburb.
Later, in my mid-teens I learned much more about the watery joy of backyard pools, after my Westmount High School pal Leon Bensason started inviting me to his home on hot summer days where the watery frolics were heightened by my furtive coming-of-age glances at his bikini-clad older sister.
When Google maps first offered satellite views of the city, many - myself included - were astounded to learn how many swimming pools dot the cityscape.
Montreal - in spite of its short summer season - rivals the top North American markets for swimming pools.
Some statistics: Quebec has 500,000 pools, which represents one pool per 16 residents, compared to 1 to 18 in Florida and 1 for 32 in California.
Quebec has one pool per 26 homes, as compared to Florida which has one per 19 and California, one-for-31, according to Peter Black in the Sherbrooke Record.
Seventy percent of the in-ground pools built in Canada in 2014 were built in Montreal, according to La Presse. Quebec tends to produce more competitive swimmers than other places as well, likely due to the backyard pools, the Globe and Mail mentioned in a similar article.
The pools are not distributed evenly across all neighbourhoods.
Off-island suburbs like Laval are jammed with backyard pools. The suburban lure isn't only great parking opps, but great splashing opportunities as well.
In contrast, areas like Cote des Neiges and Park Extension are dry as a desert.
That's likely because Montrealers rent apartments at a higher proportion than residents of other Canadian cities. Triplexes and other smaller apartment buildings don't lend themselves to backyard pools, so areas like the Plateau and St. Henri are almost bereft of residential swimming holes.
English Montrealers are less keen on pools than their French brethren, judging by the dearth in such places as Montreal West and Cote St. Luc, while place with larger French-speaking populations like Anjou and Point aux Trembles are full of pools.
Like so many love affairs, Montreal's love for swimming pools makes little sense.
Backyard pool owners often open their pools in May and close them in August or September, which makes their brief utility far less than useful than in warmer places.
Nor is Montreal a sunny place according to various government statistics, for example 44 percent of Montreal's daylight hours are sunny, trailing well behind Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Regina, which see at least half of their daylights hours sunny.
Some have attempted to explain that Montrealers tend to get pools because their houses are cheaper and they can therefore afford the extravagance.
That explanation is a little unsatisfying, however, as wage/house price ratios are much better in many other places with a lower percentage of pools, although some use electricity to heat a pool, which is cheaper in Quebec than in other provinces.
Satellite views demonstrate that swimming pools tend to fall into clusters. This suggests that Quebecers might be motivated to buy pools as a way of keeping-up-with-the-Savards.
So right now there are two types of Montrealers. There are those who are prepping their chlorine , their pumps and heaters in anticipation of lazy days at home by the pool and then those who are thinking dry thoughts, or no thoughts at all.
You will also note that the public outdoor swimming pools within our city and some suburban parks used to have high diving boards located between the two lower ones, but some years ago the high ones were quietly removed, presumably due to the fear of lawsuits in the event anyone should suffer an accident with the inevitable result of rising insurance costs. I do not recall any such high-board-related accidents reported in the media, however, therefore I suspect the removals were a pre-emptive over-reaction by the city.
ReplyDeleteWhat DOES seem to happen more often in our public pools are those sudden, unexpected drowning deaths of children to whom no one--including life guards--seemed to be paying attention at the time, and unfortunately the sadly routine occurance of small children who drowned after having managed to climb over backyard fences or through defective gates.
Our summers being so relatively short, it was a wise move and long-overdue for the city to close some outdoor pools and place them indoors for year-round patronage, just as some outdoor rinks have created a more manageable environment inside dedicated arena complexes.
Sorta disagree. Outdoor hockey rinks are a part of the cityscape that symgolize free and unregulated play outdoors in the winter. Once it's inside there's a myriad of rules and equipment and officials and costs. The outdoor rink allows for kids and adults to play as play is supposed to be, by getting along without supervision and making your own rules. It's a high priority to keep these going even when they're not used in great numbers.
ReplyDeleteAs for city pools, they also represent an opportunity to get outside and enjoy being outside of boxes for one little moment of our lives.
Certainly the outdoor swimming pools are necessary for our hot (and getting hotter), humid summer climate, yet because they are exposed to the elements all year round, they do require more cleaning and maintenance as once the early spring ice has melted in these pools, the murky, leaf-covered water is an attraction for gulls and ducks.
ReplyDeleteAs for pool rules and etiquette (peeing underwater!), these are necessary wherever gangs of kids and young adults congregate. Some children simply can't keep from running and screaming at the top of their lungs for whatever reason. Furthermore, I remember once seeing the police enter a public pool to search some youths for drugs they presumably might have been dealing there.