This story originally aired on July 16, 2024. It aired most recently in the February 18, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
The redevelopment of San Francisco's India Basin Waterfront is cleaning up the coast. But in order for neighborhood kids to get the most out of their new park, they need to learn to swim.
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On the outside, the Martin Luther King Jr. Pool is a sort of cold, brutalist structure, made of giant slabs of concrete. But inside, it’s a palace of light, with the sound of children’s laughter, screeches, and splashes, reflecting and refracting off the water.
The pool is often full of kids, all at various stages of learning to swim. Today, a young group of children sit along the edge of the shallow end, with just their feet in the water, kicking with fierce attention. Nearby, others splash and slap at the water, trying to snag rings their teacher has tossed.
On one of my visits, an 11 year old named Jubin climbs out of the deep end. His teeth chatter as he tells me what he likes about the lessons.
“Learning how to swim, and then trying to make new friends here and swim with them.”
His little sister, Juni, shivers under her towel in front of the cold metal bleachers. She just loves being in the water. “I like to swim in the water. It's fun to be in the water and swim around.” Her face squishes up in disgust when she thinks about one of the downsides of swimming, “Except for when I drink the water.”
Their mom, Jane Chang, stands by, encouraging them as they recount their victories and struggles.
“I learned to swim when I was a kid. I know it's a skill that you kind of keep with you for your whole life. And I want my kids to learn that for sure.”
So, when Jane heard that this pool was offering free swim lessons to kids who live or study in the Bayview - Hunters Point Neighborhood, she had to sign them up.
“This was awesome that it was free, you know, just me taking care of the kiddos by myself and living in this community and having it so close by.”
The free lessons are called the Bayview Safety Swim and Splash Program. It’s a partnership between San Francisco Rec and Park, and the YMCA. And Since it launched two years ago, the classes have helped over 500 kids to get water safe. It’s all part of a much bigger project happening on the other side of the neighborhood, where the city is cleaning up an industrial stretch of coastline and building a brand new park along the India Basin.
Patrice Lynch is Assistant Supervisor at the Martin Luther King Jr. Pool. He’s worked at the pool for more than 30 years - recognizable with his bright red lifeguard shorts and big encouraging smile.
He explains how community stakeholders were tasked with creating an equitable roadmap for the park’s development. And they decided these lessons needed to happen.
“Since it's built in the Bayview, there's a lot of kids who are underprivileged who don't have the opportunity to swim… If you're going to build something, we require that you teach our children here how to swim.”
The India Basin Waterfront Parks will have a visitors center, kayaking, fishing, nature hikes, and a giant playground. And community advocates have stated that the aim of the park is to build it with and for the community it's in. The plan identified free swim lessons as part of connecting local young people to the coastal park. And of course, the lessons could also help to save their lives.
Over 70% of the people that live within a 30 minute walk of India Basin are African American or Hispanic. And people from these communities have a much higher rate of drowning than White Americans. That has a lot to do with access and racism.
Patrice remembers a time before the MLK pool was here in Bayview. “In the 60s, this was a predominantly African American community.” The Bayview was pretty segregated from the rest of the city. The Naval shipyard, now a superfund site, was where a lot of people had jobs. But before the pool opened in 1968 most folks here didn’t have a direct connection to water.
Patrice’s eyes shine as he shows me brochures for the first programs offered here.
“This was the original program that started in, uh, 68. Here's my father right here on the edge. This was one of the directors of the Red Cross at the time who were involved in it.”
Patrice’s dad, Vincent Lynch, was one of the first instructors here. He used to bring Patrice and other kids from the Fillmore over in his truck, to make sure they could take part in lessons. For Patrice, this is an important legacy to continue, and to talk about.
“For me to teach the kids and to definitely enhance my community, to show presence that there are people, uh, Of, of, uh, African diaspora who swim. Because there's a notion that we don't swim. We do swim. We've been swimming for a long time. We know how to sail, we know how to paddle, we know how to fish.”
But he’s proud of the potential for this narrative to change with the next generation, and hopefully, with the park.
“It's such a reward to see a kid. I mean, I'm trying not to get emotional about it… To see kids, uh, have the opportunity. And cherish that opportunity to learn something that hasn't been really placed in their lives to do and they get the opportunity to do it and bring so much, uh, joy to me.”
Ariana Anguiano is a returning student to the Bayview Safety Swim and Splash program. As she bounces around, eager to get in the water, it’s clear she feels a similar sense of joy.
“My favorite part is like, when we like, get to get inside the water because it feels like, it feels like if we're getting inside something beautiful.”
She also feels a responsibility to be safe in the water. “I get to learn how to swim and because my mom doesn't, my mom doesn't know how to swim. So she told me to sign up because then she wants me to be able to save her. I feel like I'm getting stronger by just me expressing myself inside the water.”
It will still be a couple of years before the park, with its cleaned up coastline and long list of amenities, is fully up and running. In the meantime, the kids learning to swim here seem pretty happy to be in the water that’s available to them right now.
