The number of Dallas residents visiting the community pools has dropped this year as the city deals with budget constraints and aging facilities.
Seven weeks into this year’s 10-week session, the city reported 16,592 people had gone to its pools. That’s about 46% of the total attendance during the summer of 2023, which was 35,720.
Last summer, budgetary cuts threatened to close Dallas community pools, and three were closed for maintenance. This year, all nine pools are open for swimming under a reduced schedule, aquatics superintendent Raul Robles said.
The Dallas Park Board held a special session in 2024 to discuss proposed cuts totaling $2.6 million. The cuts would have closed all nine pools and reduced the city’s contribution to its public-private partnerships like the Dallas Zoo and Trinity River Audubon Center.
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The plan was met with resistance, especially from some park board members who argued that pool closures could negatively impact communities in the city’s southern half, as the majority of pools are located south of I-30.
Instead, park officials cut hours to three days a week during the summer to lower operating costs. This summer, most pools offer open swim two days during the week and one weekend day, Robles said.
The number of community pool visitors for the summer of 2025 appears to be below average pool attendance over the past two summers, according to attendance data provided to The Dallas Morning News. Most pools have seen around half the number of visitors they had last summer as of July 11, which marks seven weeks into the 10-week season.
People swim in Walnut Hill Swimming Pool, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Dallas. (Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer)
The city has 20 water facilities, including the nine pools that are decades old and hard to maintain, Park Department Director John Jenkins told The News last summer.
The newest pool is Everglade, built in 1975, according to the City’s 2015 aquatics master plan presentation.
Several community pools — including Grauwyler Pool, Martin Weiss Pool and Walnut Hill Pool — did not open at all last summer due to infrastructure issues. All three were found to be leaking large amounts of water, Robles said, but are back open this year.
This summer, the pools opened May 27, just after Memorial Day, and will close August 3.
Martin Weiss Pool, located in Oak Cliff, and Pleasant Oaks Pool, located in Pleasant Grove, are the busiest community pools, according to attendance data. Martin Weiss saw 7,316 visitors in the summer of 2023, before closing the summer of 2024, and appears on track to match that number for the summer of 2025. Pleasant Oaks pool received over 8,000 visitors the past two summers.
Average attendance looks to be declining at Glendale Pool, Grauwyler Pool and Walnut Hill Pool, the oldest pools operated by the City of Dallas. Walnut Hill Pool, which was closed last summer, has only received 719 visitors as of last Friday. Around 3,800 people visited Walnut Hill Pool in 2023.
Nadia Loa, 32, was at Glendale Pool with her 14-year-old and 12-year-old, who love the community pools, she said.
“It feels homey, you know. It’s within the community, and that’s one of the best things is to feel like we’re in a safe place,” she said, adding that she appreciates the police officers and security guards who check in on the pools.
Loa said that because she works weekends at Children’s Medical Center Plano, the new hours fit her family’s schedule. Still, she wishes the pool was open longer.
“It would be nice for it to be open more just because you don’t want kids to just be sitting at home,” she said. “It’s where they can get exercise.”
Karina Villarreal, 36, who chaperoned her two daughters and their friend at Glendale Pool, said the kids get the most value out of community pools.
“I’d rather have them out here doing physical activities, out here swimming, than at the house,” she said.
The city updated its last aquatics master plan in 2015 to modernize its facilities. That plan called for the opening of family aquatic centers, which could include slides, a raindrop feature and a zero-entry “beach” at the edge of a pool. The first aquatic center was opened in 2018, Robles said, and the city currently operates nine, in addition to the nine traditional pools.
Robles said the next master plan is currently in the works.
“Just to have nine family aquatic centers recently rebuilt and a master plan being worked on is a huge success, right now, for our industry,” he said.