Every summer we are confronted with the lack of city-owned public swimming pools and the inability of the State DCR to keep the two outdoor pools it controls in Cambridge (in North Cambridge and at Magazine Beach) open longer. The pools are open 6/22-8/22 and hours are limited to 11:15am to 6:45pm, depriving us of the chance to cool off in the often brutally hot final weeks of August and early September, or in the early morning or in the evening until sunset. A Cambridge Day recap of the discussion during a recent Council hearing notes: “As an issue of special interest in North Cambridge, which has both a significant population in public housing and an ongoing surge in higher-end housing construction, adding swimming opportunities should be on the list of topics discussed as part of the Envision Cambridge planning process, which has a separate focus on the Alewife neighborhood, vice mayor Jan Devereux said….Devereux pointed to a growing population in the (Alewife) neighborhood and imagined telling developers of big projects, ‘you can build your 500-unit apartment building with its private pool, but you also have to help us build one and maintain it.’”