New Britain herald., 1923-04-27
COMMUNICATED
The Swimming Pool
To the Editor of the Herald:

April 26
 have read with interest your men
 ton of Stanley Park in tonight's papel
 and the mayors expressed belief tha
 the opposition to the proposed swim
 ming pool is confined to two or three
 of the residents of the North End
 In this he is mistaken. The people oi the North End do not want the swim. | ming pool. Their observation of af. fairs last summer cause them to be.
 lieve that it will be nuisance and | detriment and 1t will require very lit- | tie inquiry to make the fact clear. l There are a number of reasons which make such a project undesirable to them and it seems unfair to jam this
 project through without their wishes
 being consulted.
 Stanley Quarter Park is the nearest approach we have to a natural bit l of woodland which is available to the people. Nature lovers from all parts | of the city have pleasure in visiting | it. The city has a chance to develop this park along lines which will make it delightful place for people to go
 who enjoy the quiet and peace of the woods. There is some of the small wild life still to be found there-wild flowers of many kinds, berries in their season, ferns and shrubs and other things of like interest. All through the summer families go there to picnic and on Sunday working men with their wives and babies spend the day there. Women and girls have felt safe in wandering through it unattended and people go there in the evening to hear the thrashes sing. The swimming pool brought in to the park last year an element which would speedily put an end to any such enjoyment of the place, and class that would find just as much pleasure in an entirely diff ferent environment.
 Many of the people who have bought homes in the Stanley Quarter were moved to do so by it's quiet and neighborliness. They value the park as it is. They were disturbed last year by young women walking the streets with their legs bare from their slip pers to their trunks and young men as scantily clad. A greater number of the swimmers were boys in their teens and there was much noise and disturbance as they paved to and from the park, and women have been obliged to stop going there because they did not feel safe in doing so. If the swimming pool is built the park will be of little interest to any of those who have found it pleasant in the past
 Hartford has it's park which is de- voted to nature and the things of the wood Springfield, has such park. Other cities carefully preserve such pie and it would seem that after fill 1 ing the South End Park with jazz and 1 noises and putting tennis courts and ball grounds into Walnut Hill Park, | New Britain might dedicate this one | place to the purpose for which park l were originally created-breathing | spots where the people of the city can | get some of the real air and influence | of the unspoiled country.
 Stanley Park is too distant from the | center of population to make it the | proper place for swimming pool. It | is too far for the little children to | walk to it. It is too unguarded for the | crowd of young people | who would be it's chief patrons, and | it's presence would drag into and | through the Stanley Quarter noisy i disturbing element which many of the | property owners sought to. escape | when they located in the North End.
 We shall soon have in Stanley Quar- ter several hundreds of young women | at the new Normal school. Something 1, in the way of consideration is due to | them. The swimming pool would be located very near the school, and its influence would certainly be of no ad- to the school. We should make the park a safe place for the | girls who will live at the school to visit at will, and it would be we'll to put into it trees and plants which may be made of use in their work and to encourage the increase of small wild fife which has survived in some meas lre.
 Mayor Paonessa is said to be plan hing tag day to raise funds to build ! pool. Has he the authority, despite my expressed disapproval, to have a pool built? Does the whole thing hinge on the mayors personal wish md the possession of cash to further 1is plan? It seems to me that there mould be some formality needed and 'ome approval secured. If the mayor ,as his tag day I suggest that the people Of the city who do not approve # his plan devote the same day to aising funds to fight the project ven in the courts if necessary, and hall be pleased to contribute to such cause. t
 You state that the pool was visited ' ast summer by thousands. My own observation leads me to believe that 2 he number was much less than thou n ands and that the count was made Q