Funding the dip

Is there really a national lifeguard shortage?

Welcome to a premium Wednesday evening edition of Progress Report.

Despite the best efforts of several decades of vulture capitalists and dimwit politicians, the United States for now continues to be the most powerful force in the history of the modern world. Our federal government has reshaped civilization many times over and retains the ability to rearrange the contours of our everyday lives. For the first 12 or so months of the pandemic, that power was activated by the prospect of full economic collapse, leading to unprecedented direct economic stimulus.

Unfortunately, lawmakers have since settled back into the familiar cynical gridlock, so it’s up to states and municipalities to step into the breach.

Local governments can’t reverse climate change or provide big ticket items like fully funded health care programs or massive economic stimulus — that’s trillion dollar, money-printing territory. But municipalities’ capacity for granular decision-making can still often have an outsized impact on the lives of millions of Americans.

That thesis has driven a fair number of our stories in the Progress Report newsletter this year, but tonight, we’re going more granular than ever with a seasonally appropriate look at how a mundane annual budget item can determine the course of so many lives.

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by Natalie Meltzer

Yesterday marked the official start of summer, and the inequality is already heating up.

For kids from wealthy families, the summer means carefree weeks at private overnight camps and weekend trips out to the family beach house, each representing a return to normalcy after two years spoiled by Covid. But for many children from middle- and low-income homes, the next few months will be spent sitting at home by the buzzing air conditioning unit, waiting for the small window of time that the local pool or public beach are open on any given day. 

Such is life amid a sudden national “lifeguard shortage,” which seems to have struck specifically in municipalities that have diverted much of their budgets to bloated police departments.

A product of politics and not practicality, the uneven allocation is going to do more harm than good, even from a public safety perspective. Not only is extreme heat unsafe in and of itself, murder and other violent crimes tend to be more frequent in the hot summer months.

With this summer projected to bring above-average temperatures amid an increase in violent crime, a dip in the water can be a critical tool to cool down both bodies and tempers. 

Despite the well-documented relationship between heat and public safety, municipalities across the country are closing pools or limiting hours as a result of a this so-called lifeguard shortage. A look at the numbers is bleak, but instructive.