Photo by Joseph O’Connor

With less than three months remaining until the opening of the 2022 pool season remaining, dozens of folks in West Philadelphia can secure a great summer job. Each summer, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation trains and hires 400+ lifeguards to safely staff the City’s free public pools. The City is now actively recruiting at pools across Philadelphia, and is looking to hire 57 lifeguards from West Philly to make sure pools like Kingsessing and Tustin are ready for a summer of fun.

Parks & Rec operates dozens of outdoor pools each summer, which open from mid-to-late June through mid-to-late August.

Lifeguards typically work 35 hours per week and the position pays a competitive wage of $15.25 to $17.24 an hour. Free training and swim lessons are available to anyone interested in building the skills to get certified to work as a lifeguard this summer. Red Cross certification classes are free for anyone ages 16-24 who commit to working at a City pool. The Red Cross lifeguard certification course fee is $110 for all other candidates. Continue Reading

Cobbs Creek Golf Course map (from the Cobbs Creek Foundation website).

The City of Philadelphia has announced plans for revitalization of the historic Cobbs Creek Golf Course and a multi-year lease agreement with the Cobbs Creek Foundation. This public-private partnership will invest at least $65 million to restore this public golf course and the surrounding areas. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.

The 105-year-old golf course has been closed since 2020 due to significant capital needs and safety concerns. Years of erosion and flooding from the creek washed away large sections of the greens and fairways, making the course essentially unplayable. In addition, a 2016 a fire destroyed the golf course’s historic clubhouse. Continue Reading

A new bike share station has been installed near Malcolm X Park (52nd and Larchwood).

Philadelphia’s bike share program, Indego, has installed more bike share stations around the city after announcing plans to expand its service area to more underserved neighborhoods last December. As part of this plan, Indego has been expanding its operation in West Philadelphia and in the past few months, the following new bike docking stations have appeared in West Philly:

• 52nd and Chestnut
• 52nd and Larchwood (near Malcolm X Park)
• 50th and Baltimore Continue Reading

A new state-of-the-art U.S. Squash Center has officially opened over the weekend in the historic Pennsylvania State Armory Building on Drexel University’s campus. The center is named after the late Senator Arlen Specter who was a great fan of the sport.

The Specter Center will serve as US Squash headquarters and is currently hosting the 2021 U.S. Open Squash Championships. It will serve as the permanent home of the tournament, which brings the top players from around the world competing for the title. Continue Reading

John B. Kelly pool is opening July 6th.

Summer is here, and Philadelphia residents will finally get a chance to cool off in public pools after a two-year break (all pools were closed last summer because of COVID). Please note that not all pools will reopen this summer – the City’s Parks and Rec Department has announced that only about 70 percent will reopen due to a shortage of lifeguards, the problem also brought on by the pandemic.

Pools will begin reopening this week. Check out the reopening schedule for some public pools and spraygrounds located in West and Southwest Philadelphia: Continue Reading

Kingsessing Library and Recreation Center have been selected as sites eligible for improvements as part of the City of Philadelphia’s Rebuild program.

Rebuild coordinators are currently in the process of learning about these two sites and are asking community members to provide feedback by completing an online survey.

The survey asks community members to identify areas for improvement (outdoor and indoor) at each site among other questions. Continue Reading