By Hugh Malkin - life long swimmer, father to two children at Virginia Highland Elementary and avid bicycle commuter
Summary: Amidst a city-wide lack of public pools and tragic child drowning statistics, a parent-led effort to build a year-round community pool on APS land in Virginia-Highland has stalled. The primary objection? Concerns over creating too much demand for free on-street parking. This article explores how this conflict highlights urban planner Donald Shoup's concept of the "High Cost of Free Parking," pitting neighborhood convenience against a potentially life-saving community resource.
Call to Action: The VHCA board meets this Monday (May 12th) at 7pm at Grace Lutheran Church, 1155 North Highland Avenue Northeast. They will vote to support or not support the Virginia Highland pool pre-development plan.
Voice your support by:
Attend and be vocal at the VHCA Monday May 12th at 7pm
CLICK THIS LINK to send an email of support to the VHCA Board
Atlanta has a complicated relationship with water. Ask Hannah Palmer. While searching for a place for her own kids to swim, she unearthed a forgotten history documented in her book and art installation, "Ghost Pools: A brief history of swimming in Atlanta and across America." Atlanta once boasted numerous public pools, earning it the moniker "the swimmingest city in the country," and a travel book declared, “There was no form of recreation in this City that is more thoroughly enjoyed.”
But that legacy evaporated. Palmer's research shows that beginning in the 1950s, as pools began to desegregate, white swimmers largely abandoned them. Consequently, the city's commitment faltered, funding dried up, and public pools closed or crumbled, leaving aquatic deserts in many neighborhoods. Palmer's "Ghost Pools" installations – mock pools using light and sound where real ones once stood – serve as haunting reminders of this lost civic infrastructure.
Ghost Pools. Commissioned by Flux Projects with the City of East Point Julie Yarbrough Photography
This history casts a long shadow over the present. Drowning remains a leading cause of death for young children (ages 1-4) and the second leading cause for older children (5-14). It happens fast, silently, often where you least expect it. While suburban neighborhoods often rally around summer swim teams, providing crucial access to water safety education from a young age, such opportunities are glaringly absent in many of Atlanta's densest urban areas. There are currently no public summer swim teams operating in or around the Beltline.
Map of Atlanta Swim Teams with nothing in or around the Beltline
Recognizing this dangerous void, proactive Virginia Highland Elementary (VHE) parents saw an opportunity. They identified an underutilized field owned by Atlanta Public Schools (APS) directly across from VHE as a potential site for a year-round community pool. Their vision was clear: a facility to teach essential swimming skills to APS students during the school year and host a much-needed neighborhood summer swim team.
Field of Dreams, site of the proposed pool - Ponce De Leon Pl NE and Virginia Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30306
They put together a draft pre-development agreement and on the evening of April 29th, 2025, brought a proposal to the community, facilitated by the Virginia Highland Civic Association (VHCA) and hosted at the Virginia-Highland Church.
What followed was a stark lesson in neighborhood priorities. After the presentation, the church's Pastor voiced opposition, citing concerns that the pool would create too much demand for street parking forcing his congregation to park further away. This sentiment was quickly echoed by several nearby, long-term residents, who cited parking as their primary objection. The promising pool proposal suddenly felt contentious, reminiscent of Amsterdam Walk and other polarizing neighborhood development debates.
VHCA community meeting Tuesday, April 29, 2025
This scenario, a community potentially sacrificing a vital public good like a pool that offers life-saving education due to perceived parking scarcity, is precisely what the late, renowned UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup warned about in his seminal book, The High Cost of Free Parking.
Shoup would likely diagnose this as a classic "tragedy of the commons." The "commons" here is the free, unregulated on-street parking that lines both sides of almost every street in Virginia Highlands. The church and objecting neighbors, acting in their rational self-interest to protect their convenient access to this shared resource, risk depleting or, in this case, preventing a far greater collective benefit: a community pool offering safety, recreation, and equity. The cost of "free" parking, Shoup argued, is often hidden but immense; it encourages driving, discourages density, and, as seen here, can directly obstruct beneficial community projects.
The alternative isn't necessarily maintaining the status quo. If the pool project fails, APS could lease the land to someone else. Virginia-Highland could see the field transformed into an apartment complex, a storage facility, perhaps even a data center. All developments that might bring their own parking and density impacts, without the community benefit of a pool.
Professor Shoup offered solutions for situations like this. Instead of treating valuable curb space as a free-for-all, communities can manage it like the asset it is. Implementing parking meters or permit systems, even at modest rates, can regulate demand. When parking isn't free, people rationally consider alternatives. With a MARTA bus stop located directly in front of the proposed pool site, viable options already exist. Pricing the parking could encourage biking, walking, or transit use, easing congestion and freeing up space – perhaps enough space to build a pool that saves lives.
The question for Virginia-Highland becomes: What is the real cost of free parking? Is it worth sacrificing a place where children can learn to swim, build community on a summer team, and be safer around water? Or can the neighborhood find a way to manage its parking demand to make room for a resource that benefits everyone?
Potential proposal Virginia highland pool site plan
The proposal will head to the VHCA board at 7 pm on Monday, May 12th, at Grace Lutheran Church, 1155 North Highland Avenue Northeast. Your presence and voice at this meeting are vital.
Additionally, you can make your support heard even if you can't attend in person. Click the link below to easily send an email to the VHCA Board urging them to vote YES on the pre-development plan:
If you have questions, please read the FAQ or email the Virginia-Highland Pool Association.