Residents push back on city's renovation plans for Mestizo-Curtis Park pool
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DENVER — A group of lifelong Curtis Park residents and longtime business owners plan to submit their own design for the Mestizo-Curtis Park outdoor pool to Denver officials this week, arguing the city’s proposed redesign of the 89-year-old pool doesn’t reflect community needs.
Built in 1936 and renovated in the 1950s, the 50-meter pool has long served as a neighborhood gathering spot. Before Denver Parks and Recreation closed the space in 2023 for renovations, Mestizo-Curtis Park had a pool for lap swimming, a smaller pool for children, a bathhouse and umbrellas for shade.
“We’re not going to settle for anything less than what we had before,” said Aurelio Martinez, 70, who has lived in Curtis Park his entire life and is part of the group pushing Denver to change its plans.
“The city’s design was unacceptable and we’re telling them they need to present something better to our community.”
Denver Parks and Recreation unveiled a redesign in June 2025 after community feedback that would replace the old pool with one half its size for swimming laps and another for kids and splashing.
The plan also calls for demolishing the existing bathhouse, which officials said no longer meets accessibility and safety codes. The “Eyes on the Park” mural painted by Denver muralist Emanuel Martinez depicts the area’s Black and Chicano residents and is painted on the current bathhouse, which Parks and Recreation plans to demolish. The city has promised to commission Martinez to paint a new mural on the future bathhouse.
Learning to swim, dive and working as a lifeguard at the pool was a formative childhood experience for many living in Curtis Park and Five Points in the 1980s and 1990s, said Milo Marquez, a fifth-generation Curtis Park resident who worked as a lifeguard at the Mestizo-Curtis Park Pool in the 90s.
“It gave an opportunity to a lot of us who wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to swim, let alone dive and be a lifeguard,” Marquez said.
Viola Salazar, a diver who competed in national competitions in the 1940s, trained at the Mestizo-Curtis Park Pool, according to a 2016 article in the Curtis Park Times. Her success was a point of pride and inspiration for other kids in Curtis Park and Five Points, said John Hayden, a Curtis Park resident and co-owner of Thick’s Gelato and Chocolates, a dessert shop in the neighborhood.
“Children from all different cultures and backgrounds need that same opportunity to learn to swim and to do so competitively if they choose,” Hayden said.
About 60% of Black children and 45% of Latino children have “low or no swimming ability,” compared to 40% of white children, according to USA Swimming.
Denver temporarily closed the pool in 2023, citing leaks and aging infrastructure. The city initially planned to reopen it in 2027, but the timeline could stretch further after Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission rejected the city’s plan August 5, said Stephanie Figueroa, Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson.
Commissioners rejected the city’s plan due to architectural issues, as well as complaints from neighbors who attended the meeting and said the city’s outline deters neighborhood kids from learning to swim laps.
A group of about 60 Curtis Park neighbors met with Parks and Recreation officials in August and September to share concerns that the two smaller pools felt like a “downgrade” from the larger lap pool.
The residents are pushing for a design identical to the original pool but with upgraded safety, cleanliness and amenities.
That would include a 50-meter lap pool, a smaller pool for kids, a splash pad, a diving board and an entrance from Mestizo-Curtis Park rather than the street.
Parks and recreation plans to hold more listening sessions with the community and wants to prioritize neighbors’ input, Figueroa said.
The $16 million project is being funded with $6.05 million from the Denver RISE bond, which voters approved in 2021, plus Parks and Recreation funds.
Parks and Recreation staff conducted two surveys of those living near the Mestizo-Curtis Park Pool in September and November 2024. Most of the 800 respondents preferred a leisure pool over an athletic pool, or a combination of the two, Figueroa said.
The survey results did not reflect the residents of color living in Five Points and Curtis Park, said Rosalie Cisneros, a 62-year-old Curtis Park resident who has lived in the neighborhood since she was 11. A presentation on survey results published by the city shows respondents were 72% white, 13% Hispanic or Latino, six percent Asian or Pacific Islander and nine percent preferred not to identify their race.
“I and all of the Black and Chicano people I know never even got this survey,” Cisneros said.
The pool, which sits between Five Points, Curtis Park, Cole and Whittier, was a vital part of shared community life, Cisneros said.
“I had friends that lived on the north and east sides of town and we’d all get to know each other at the pool even if we went to different schools,” she said. “It was the hangout place for all the kids.”
Kids of different races and who attended different schools became a family at the pool, Marquez said.
“It didn’t matter if you were Black or Chicano, everyone in the neighborhood was your uncle and auntie, even if they looked nothing like you and you all congregated at the pool,” he said.
Parks and Recreation has not officially scheduled another meeting with neighbors, though it plans to review the residents’ plan and hopes to meet again in October, Figueroa said.
Type of story: News
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.