AEvery beginning is difficult. Frankfurt Mayor Mike Josef (SPD) recently witnessed this from the edge of the pool. His seven-year-old son took a little longer than other children in the beginner swimming course before he was allowed to sew the seahorse onto his swimming trunks. “For him it was due to his ability to concentrate, but it was all the better for him and us when he had achieved it,” said Josef in a good mood at the annual review of Frankfurt’s seven outdoor and indoor swimming pools. His son was one of 1,600 children who had their basic swimming ability certified by the pool companies alone in the year that ended. Josef wants to continue the fight against swimming deficiencies with the swimming course offensive in the pool companies.
For Josef and the city's politicians, contrary to what the law states, swimming is part of the public service that a municipality must provide for its citizens. He emphasizes this at every opportunity when it comes to swimming pools, and he acts like it: While there is currently thought about increasing admission prices to museums, for example, the entrance fee to the swimming pools will not be available for the coming year, despite rising energy prices and other costs Discussion. “Everything is becoming more expensive: energy, food and so on. We have to offer recreational opportunities in the city to people who can't afford two vacations a year. The bathrooms are an important component because they are socially integrative. And that has to remain affordable as a family,” said Josef. Access to the municipal pools is free of charge up to the age of 14. In 2023, this was used 400,000 times, more often than ever since its introduction in 2019.
Popularity in indoor swimming pools as proof of good work
According to Boris Zielinski, managing director of Bäderbetriebe Frankfurt, the numbers speak for themselves. More than two million visitors used the city's facilities in 2023. Although the summer was rainy, as many people came as in the sunny previous year. “Great visitor numbers in summer are largely due to the weather, but the 1.2 million visitors to the indoor swimming pools are evidence of the good work we do,” said Zielinski.
How many visitors come and how much is invested in pools depends on each other: “I find out this in discussions with my colleagues in the city council: the sometimes miserable pool situations in municipalities are mostly caused by the pools being neglected, and the number of visitors is like a domino “broken away and as a result there were no longer any arguments for the expensive modernization or new construction of pools.” The lack of employees also contributed to the fact that many municipalities only opened pools to a limited extent.
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