This photograph of an east Baltimore girl cooling off in the spray from an open fire hydrant (the second in our series, “Scenes from a City Summer”) is more than just Jennifer Bishop’s take on a classic photo-journalistic trope.

It should be, we think, a call to action . . .

Open hydrants are technically illegal in Baltimore, as the annual press release from the Department of Recreation and Parks warns citizens. Yet, who can blame people of modest means for turning to them on these blasting-hot, 100-plus-degree days, since now they have fewer legal options? City officials, citing budgetary constraints, are once again operating public pools on a trimmed-back, “staggered schedule.”

This means that, while the larger “park pools” (like Clifton and Riverside) are open from June 25 through Sept. 5, the 13 “walk-to pools,” (like City Springs and Liberty) are open for a period that’s shorter by four weeks –  from July 9 through Aug. 20. That’s not how it used to be. And anyone who knows Baltimore summers, especially in these warmer-world days, know that’s not long enough.

What would it cost the city to open the walk-to pools so they could be on the same schedule as the park pools? Basically, what would it cost Baltimore to give city kids a swim season at a nearby pool that’s as long as the one enjoyed by luckier kids who swim in suburban and private city swim clubs?

Opening the 13 walk-to pools two weeks earlier, on June 25, would cost about $42,000, city officials told Ralph E. Moore Jr., director of the St. Frances Academy Community Center, according to a quote from Moore in a 6/27/11 Baltimore Sun story. Presumably, extending the walk-to schedule by two weeks at the end of the summer would also cost about $42,000.

So there we have it – $84,000.

The call to action?

It’s for people to remember that number and talk about it when other numbers get thrown around, like $7.75 million being spent to get downtown city streets ready for the three-day Grand Prix. Or the proposed $400 million expansion of the Baltimore Convention Center. Or the $14.5 million in tax breaks the city granted for 12 downtown and Harbor East buildings last year.

$84,000.

– Fern Shen