{"id":103046,"date":"2025-07-29T21:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103046\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T21:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:10:12","slug":"city-heights-swim-center-extends-hours-is-free-for-summer-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103046\/","title":{"rendered":"City Heights swim center extends hours, is free for summer \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is now free to swim at the public pool in City Heights for the rest of the summer. <\/p>\n

A donation from the Price Philanthropies Foundation<\/a> allows the City Heights Swim Center <\/a> on Landis Street to open seven days a week instead of just five days, and eliminate entrance fees for everyone.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Aiden Laguna is a middle school student and beginning swimmer. \u201cI like to swim because it\u2019s fun, entertaining, and it helps your body,” he said. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Aiden<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

Aiden Laguna learns to swim in the City Heights pool, July 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving access to water, learning to swim, and preventing drowning are vital services provided by the Parks and Recreation Department\u2019s Aquatics team,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Field said. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“Swimming on the water is way different because you know what you\u2019re going to do. But, with a (robotic) drone, you\u2019ve got to control it,” said Pedro Colex, a student entering eleventh grade at Lincoln High School this fall. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Pedro<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Some communities have a culture of fear of the water, and many children don\u2019t learn how to swim as a result. According to the most recent U.S. census, City Heights<\/a> is a neighborhood made up of a majority of Hispanic residents, many of them low-income, which can create barriers to swim lessons. <\/p>\n

\n

It’s <\/strong>just great to be able to pass it down and
change the narrative that\u2019s existed where certain populations were excluded from pools.<\/p>\n

Sinthya Carranza\/District Manager San Diego City Aquatics<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 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).”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u201cIt opens job opportunities, and opportunities to form healthy habits,” Carranza said. “It’s <\/strong>just great to be able to pass it down and change the narrative that\u2019s existed where certain populations were excluded from pools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

The City Heights Swim Center on Landis Street is now open seven days a week with no entry fees, July 24, 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is now free to swim at the public pool in City Heights for the rest of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,34657,718,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-103046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city-heights","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}