Richard Brooks wishes he took a picture of the old Towanda Pool in Park Heights. One had to see it to believe its transformation.

Brooks remembers it being open one summer and closed the next. Inside the chainlink fence, the “deep” pool was only four feet, he recalled, and people had to bring lawn chairs to sit around it. Outside, an unfenced baby pool sprouted a single sprinkler. In the off-season, people hopped the fence to hang out around the drained pool, leaving empty bottles and trash.

With no other pools within a mile, neighborhood kids often popped fire hydrants or dipped in backyard inflatables to stay cool after it closed in 2019.

The new Towanda pool, which opened June 24 outside a recently renovated recreation center, is a different story. One pool stands eight feet deep, with starter blocks and lap lanes. The other is a walk-in pool decked out with sprinklers and water spouts, partially shielded by a shade covering. They’re both fenced in, with blue reclining chairs and umbrella-covered tables framing both pools.

“This pool has been a miracle in this neighborhood,” said Brooks, a 55-year-old community aide at the Towanda pool. “It’s been a long time since I’ve actually looked forward to work. Everybody is lit up when they come here.”

Unlike neighboring suburban counties, Baltimore offers residents public pools for recreation. The city operates 19 pools and four splash pads in neighborhoods across Baltimore, but some of those facilities had been neglected. Three years ago, Mayor Brandon Scott and other city officials pledged to use $41 million in pandemic relief funds to upgrade parks and public spaces, including city pools.

For residents now reaping the benefits, the new pools symbolize more than relief from grueling summer days. The investments boost public safety and neighborhood rehabilitation efforts, and make recreation more accessible.

Tre Henriques, who was recently on vacation from his port job, took his three daughters to the pool in Park Heights every day. The dead end of Towanda Avenue, where the pool and rec center are now, used to look like a “zombieland,” Henriques said — now it’s an opportunity.

“If there’s nothing in the area, the first thing you’re gonna do is go hang on the block,” Henriques said. “When you change the environment, people will change.”

Towanda is the rec center Mayor Brandon Scott grew up in. He was taken aback when he visited the center when it closed in 2019 and found nothing had been changed or updated. It was a spark that signaled the need for investments.

“Now, in communities throughout the city, not only do they have their pools new and improved, but they have pools and aquatic centers that you would see in suburban neighborhoods, because that’s what they deserve too,” Scott said.

Long-term gain didn’t come without short-term pain. After the pools pledge, at least eight were closed in July 2023 for renovations or repairs. But last summer and this one delivered multiple ribbon cuttings for pools.

Not every city pool has seen a major overhaul like Towanda, Coldstream and Walter P. Carter in the Wilson Park neighborhood, all of which are outfitted now with the same two-pool vision and new amenities. The three pools represent a combined $20 million investment from American Rescue Plan Act funds and other city and state money.

Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Director Reginald Moore Sr. said a citywide assessment helped dictate which pools get what funding, and when, based on prioritizing pools in poorer condition. Coldstream, for example, used to have a chainlink fence inside the pool, a safety hazard that separated shallow and deep end, Moore said.

Still dripping wet from a jump in the Coldstream Pool, Mark Washington, executive director of Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Corp., said the new facility and other amenities “breathe life into a community.”

Between Clifton Park, a local playground and a community center, the area can provide structured environments for kids to realize their full potential, Washington explained.

The brand-new pool is another reason to take “pride” in the community, which “still hasn’t given up on itself,” he added.

Two miles away is the Walter P. Carter Pool. Wilson Park resident Mike Anderson thinks the pool can play a role in exposing some community members to a “positive outlet” within walking distance.

Opportunities for swimming are also important in Black communities because of a historical lack of exposure, Anderson said.

Black people generally drown at higher rates than white people, a disparity that worsens for children.

District 6 Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, whose district includes Park Heights, emphasized the importance of investing in city services in Black communities, from pools to libraries. Park Heights was just approved for a library branch, the first new library built in Baltimore in 15 years.

“I literally saw the dismantling of the needs of a community,” Middleton said of her time as a City Council member. “Believe me, this is like a dream come true.”

Of the city’s 10 neighborhood pools now open, the three brand-new pools had the highest daily attendance in roughly the first half of July, according to Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. While many residents used to trek to bigger pools located in city parks, they now have an option in their backyards with even better amenities.

And all pools are free for entry, so long as people have a rec account, which can be registered for online.

Erica Shearn, who takes her three kids to the Walter P. Carter Pool, finds it difficult to pinpoint affordable options for children in the summertime.

“They want you to pay for everything,” Shearn said. “Everybody ain’t fortunate.”

Moore got rid of entry payments for pools in 2020.

“When you enhance and renovate these things and make things more accessible, then you’re seeing an increase in your attendance,” Moore said. “There have been communities that have not been invested into in the past.”

The city has not developed plans for building any new pools yet, Moore said. It needs to fix its 19 existing pools first, including an ongoing multimillion-dollar renovation at Greater Model Pool in Poppleton. The pools at City Springs Aquatic Center and Chick Webb Recreation Center are also included under this year’s budget but have not yet broken ground.

For now, Moore and his team want to boost recruiting for lifeguard jobs and hire more, offering opportunities for the city’s youth and allowing for increased pool attendance.

Another long-term goal is Moore’s vision for neighborhood swim teams.

He pictures a group of kids from, say, the Towanda pool facing a swim team from Coldstream, and the two winners of a citywide competition going head-to-head in a “Mayor’s Cup” at the end of the summer.

That starts with teaching kids how to swim, Moore said.

Earlier this summer, a group of campers filed into Towanda, splashing into the shallow end of the deep pool.

Even though he wasn’t scheduled to work that afternoon, Brooks showed up along with his three grandchildren. They walked from his house, talking about who could hold their breath the longest and do an underwater flip.

None of them have a pool near where they live, Brooks said, which makes the visits extra special.

“They love it, absolutely love it,” he said. “I really, really enjoy them enjoying themselves in the water.”