Philadelphia Will Always Overcome: Residents Replace Dumpster Pools With Pickup Truck Pools
PhillyMag – When temperatures skyrocketed, residents on Cedar Street lined a dumpster with tarps and filled it with fire hydrant water to create their own little oasis. Then they held a block party.
So when L&I said no to dumpster pools filled with fire hydrant water, Philly took it up a notch. The result: pickup truck pools…Pickup truck pools are debatably a step up from dumpster pools, as they probably waste less water and take up less space. But hopefully the bathers chose to get their H20 from elsewhere this time. L&I’s biggest problem with these pools seems to be the hydrant-tapping – about 60,000 galloons come out of a hydrant every hour, and Philly already has a problem with illegally opened hydrants.
In case you missed Philadelphians putting our prominent ingenuity on display earlier this month by turning dumpsters into lavish, luxurious swimming pools, here’s that blog. And as mentioned in that post, big government swooped in with an egregious abuse of power to shut down the dumpster pools. It will go down as a black eye on justice, integrity, democracy, and everything that is right in America. But you need to remember who you are dealing with here. You need to remember that the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. You need to remember that this type of behavior is ingrained into our souls. We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today, we beat the heat in pickup truck pools.
And here’s the thing. I know that truck pools aren’t anything new or unique to Philadelphia. I get that rednecks have been putting pools in their pickup trucks for eons (am I allowed to say rednecks? Or do we just call them the other r-word now?). But it’s that can-do attitude that means the most here. It’s that can’t stop, won’t stop, never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down type of mentality that makes Philly, Philly. Would it be easy to just shut down shop after the dumpster pools were banned? Absolutely. We could have packed it in and dealt with the heat the same exact way that other cities–by being a bunch of bitches about it. But the difference between ordinary and extraordinary, is that little extra. And pickup truck pools are what makes Philadelphia such and extraordinary city.
P.S. – GOAT