It’s a Whole New Scene at Jelleff Pool

Longtime patrons of the public pools in and around Georgetown know that a certain reputation, if you will, accompanies each facility.  Volta is where all the summer interns hangs out.  Francis (West End) attracts most of its patrons from the Dupont Circle crowd.  (Apologies if I am not being P.C. here, but it is what it is.)  And finally, Jelleff  has been a predominantly family hangout that some patrons refer to as ‘Stoddert South’ given the likelihood of encountering fellow parents and classmates at the pool on any given weekend.

At least until this summer. 

[In the interest of full disclosure, my family and I have been going to the Jelleff pool for the past several summers.]

Based on both my own observations and in talking to several other long-time patrons of Jelleff, there is near universal agreement that things have changed at the pool, and not at all for the better. 

Jelleff is Stoddert South?  Try Volta North.  It used to be that the chaise lounge real estate at Jelleff was pretty evenly divided between families and ‘the pretty people.’  These days, the families are all huddled under the massive awning that was erected at the pool and the pretty young things in bikinis have the rest.  That’s not to say that this is a bad thing or that they shouldn’t be coming to the pool.  But the demographic change is noticeable.  Or as one parent put it, “The secret is out about Jelleff.”

Numbers.  In previous summers, when you walked up to the gate, you could just flash your DC driver’s license or ID and stroll right in.  Not so much.  Now you have to sign in yourself and everyone in your party (i.e. myself, my wife, and our two children).  And if the pool is at capacity, you may have to cool your heels outside the gate until enough people leave.  The problem is that what defines ‘at capacity’ seems to change from time to time, and at the very least is not posted anywhere. 

Adult whaaaat?  Similar to the sign-in list and the demographics has been the enforcement of a 15 minute adult swim period each hour.  You can imagine how well this goes over at a pool that is a regular destination for many of the families in the surrounding neighborhoods.  Here too, I cannot remember this being done last summer or the summer before, and conversations with other patrons confirmed this.

Last weekend, in fact, a parent and the pool manager exchanged a few heated words over when some kids were told they could not sit on the pool steps during adult swim and instead had to be completely out of the pool.  In the course of their exchange, the pool manager stated that all of these rules are public and posted.

As the old Cold War saying goes, I decided to ‘trust, but verify,’ and set out to get to the root of these perceived new rules and changes to rules.  There is nothing on the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation website about any of this, as you can see here.  Further, the rules posted at the pool offer no indication either as you can see in the accompanying photo.  Finally, I reached out directly to DCDPR.  Repeated emails and phone calls to DPR Chief of Staff John Stokes all went unanswered.

Despite all of this, the Jelleff pool is a delight.  Speaking as a parent, it is a wonderful place to take your kids during these dog days of summer.  But remember, the secret’s out and management is flexing its muscles.