It is now free to swim at the public pool in City Heights for the rest of the summer.
A donation from the Price Philanthropies Foundation allows the City Heights Swim Center on Landis Street to open seven days a week instead of just five days, and eliminate entrance fees for everyone.
Camp Submerge was one free program offered to 12- to 17-year-olds to learn water safety in the pool during their summer break. The program also gave kids the opportunity to learn how to make underwater robotics.
Aiden Laguna is a middle school student and beginning swimmer. “I like to swim because it’s fun, entertaining, and it helps your body,” he said.
M.G. Perez
M.G. Perez
Aiden Laguna learns to swim in the City Heights pool, July 24, 2025.
Andy Field, Director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the partnership makes it possible for even more young swimmers to utilize “these life-saving programs while enjoying the pool.”
“Having access to water, learning to swim, and preventing drowning are vital services provided by the Parks and Recreation Department’s Aquatics team,” Field said.
Students attending the summer camp split their day between time in the pool and a classroom setting, where they learn how to design and build underwater robots. The class offers them hands-on science and engineering lessons while also teaching many of them how to swim for the first time.
“Swimming on the water is way different because you know what you’re going to do. But, with a (robotic) drone, you’ve got to control it,” said Pedro Colex, a student entering eleventh grade at Lincoln High School this fall.
Pedro Colex holds the underwater drone he has designed with a classmate. It’s part of the Camp Submerge program at the City Heights Swim Center, this summer, July 24, 2025.
All of the learning was free for students. And while Camp Submerge has ended, other fitness programs are free to anyone who comes to use the pool to swim laps or just for recreation.
Some communities have a culture of fear of the water, and many children don’t learn how to swim as a result. According to the most recent U.S. census, City Heights is a neighborhood made up of a majority of Hispanic residents, many of them low-income, which can create barriers to swim lessons.
It’s just great to be able to pass it down and
change the narrative that’s existed where certain populations were excluded from pools.Sinthya Carranza/District Manager San Diego City Aquatics
Sinthya Carranza, district manager for the city’s 15 public pools, said she came from one of those communities. For her, the Price Philanthropies grant money for this pool is personal.
“That’s why I have such a passion for it. My mother came from a culture where swimming was not the first thing on their mind,” Carranza said “She was actually fearful of water because she witnessed drownings (as a child).”
The city said over the next twelve months, the funding donation is expected to support about 3,000 adults in lap and recreational swimming, and more than 7,000 children in learning and safety programs.
“It opens job opportunities, and opportunities to form healthy habits,” Carranza said. “It’s just great to be able to pass it down and change the narrative that’s existed where certain populations were excluded from pools.”
Carranza said she eventually had the honor to teach her 74-year-old mother how to swim, breaking a generational cycle and turning fear into faith for a better future.
M.G. Perez
M.G. Perez
The City Heights Swim Center on Landis Street is now open seven days a week with no entry fees, July 24, 2025.