We denizens of the District have had pool envy for decades.
And school envy.
And athletic field envy.
Everything in the surrounding the suburbs seemed better, brighter, newer.
Take swimming pools. When my daughters wanted to take swimming lessons or get certification for lifeguard jobs, we had to traipse up to Bethesda to the Montgomery County Aquatic Center near the White Flint Mall. There we found an entire complex devoted to water sports. We were green with envy.
The “nanatorium” at Wilson Senior High was an option, until the brick wall literally collapsed into the water. Two weeks ago the city unveiled the brand spanking new Wilson Aquatic Center. It has four pools in a cavernous building. One is a 50-meter racing pool for the Wilson High team; the pool for children looks like a wading pool in an amusement park. The center has whirlpools, expansive bleachers and natural light streaming in through gargantuan Palladian windows.
Montgomery County swimmers — eat your hearts out: Or just come and swim for a small fee.
The pool cost $34.7 million. It is a collaboration between Allen Lew, head of the city’s school facilities modernization operation, and Gerry Sigal, whose company built the center. But props too go to Mayor Adrian Fenty. Say what you will about Fenty’s peccadilloes in cracking up city vehicles and wiring up pool heaters so he can train for triathlons and playing keep away with baseball tickets, Fenty can justifiably take credit for rebuilding pools and schools and athletic facilities all over the capital city.
It was Fenty as the young city council member from Ward 4 who proposed the billion-dollar fund to fix the schools; it was Fenty who hired Lew after he built the convention center and Nationals park; it was Fenty who kept pushing Lew to fix schools faster.
Why could Montgomery and Fairfax counties replace aging schools and open new ones, while city schools decayed? Fenty has answered.
Last week the mayor and Lew and cut ribbons in four refurbished schools: Alice Deal Middle School in Tenleytown; Walker-Jones Education Center near Capitol Hill; Samuel Wheatley Education Center near Trinidad; and Savoy Elementary in Anacostia.
Teachers and parents literally wept when they walked into Savoy and saw the larger, brighter classrooms, each with new computers, and the library with 10,000 titles. “We call ourselves the pride of Anacostia,” Principal Anne Evans told me. “Now we certainly are.”
Lew’s crew has built or refurbished 30 playgrounds at schools or recreation centers in the past year; resurfaced 10 high school fields; and rebuilt or renovated 10 schools in all wards. Next year Lew’s crews will be working on 15 more schools, including four high schools: Wilson, Eastern, Dunbar and Anacostia.
The changes are literally stunning. The results might make for reverse envy for suburbanites, and build voters’ support for Fenty.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected]
