For many people, swimming in a pool on a hot July day with kids splashing and lifeguards hollering is the quintessential summer experience. Not only do pools provide a place for people to recreate and cool off in the summer heat, but access to pools is essential to making basic swimming and water safety instruction available to communities. Water should be a resource everyone has equal access to and can safely enjoy.
However, a great number of people can’t easily access this resource. This is a major contributor to a significant public safety issue: 44 percent of the US population doesn’t know how to swim. As a volunteer swim instructor for children from underserved communities, I saw firsthand how many children had to ride a bus several miles to the pool where I taught to receive swim lessons. This observation led me to want to explore the relationship between wealth and access to pools.
Hamilton Pool, 94949, Marin County
For this project, I set out to map the availability of pools* in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up, and compare that to population and median income data from the US Census by zip code. Using the considerable database of the US Census Website, I was able to collect individual data for each Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZTCA5) in the 10 Bay Area counties.
* For this map, I counted "pools" as any publicly (i.e., public pools) or semi-publicly (i.e., HOAs and country clubs) available pools, but I did not count any backyard pools.
Organizing pool and population data.
Additionally, I collected my pool data through sites like Yelp that advertise pools to those looking for them. The resulting maps demonstrate the connection between median household income and the availability of pools, and show that community wealth is, indeed, a determinant of access to this vital resource.
The pool availability map in process.
These maps reinforce the need for local municipalities to prioritize funding for publicly accessible pools in lower-income communities to better provide for the health and wellness of all their constituents.
Charles Scott is a Senior in high school. In his free time he swims, lifeguards, and teaches swim lessons. He has always loved maps, and wants to combine his love of maps and swimming to make a change in his community.
A note from Guerrilla Cartography board member Zachary Loran:
In late 2023, Darin Jensen (GC’s founder and president) connected me with Charlie, who had reached out to him for some guidance on this project. Like Charlie, I was first introduced to Darin and GC as a teenager, a parallel that made me a natural choice to be Charlie’s contact at GC. It was a pleasure watching Charlie create this project and assisting where I could, and I’m excited to see what this young cartographer does next!