LA plans $40M rebuild of Griffith Park Pool with gender-neutral bathrooms

Los Angeles officials announced plans to rebuild the historic Griffith Park Pool for a staggering $40 million — and it will include gender-neutral dressing rooms.

The ambitious proposal will deliver a competition pool, a neighboring recreational pool, and a rehabilitated pool house with “inclusive” change rooms, the Los Angeles Times reported. It is slated for completion by mid-2029.

However, the eye-popping price tag has raised eyebrows, particularly after a plan outlined in July pegged the cost at $28 million.

“Could private industry tell me how much it would ACTUALLY cost to redo this pool, versus how much Karen Bass is wasting on nonsense to do her union friends a favor using our taxpayer money?” Los Angeles mayoral candidate and reality TV star Spencer Pratt asked on X.

The Griffith Park Pool was built in 1927 but has been closed since 2020, when it was shut down amid COVID-19 pandemic measures. When the city tried to refill the pool once restrictions were lifted, workers found that it no longer held water.

“The pool is being completely replaced. It leaks like a sieve,” Stephanie Kingsnorth, principal of the architecture firm Perkins Eastman, told community members at an open house meeting Thursday night, according to The Times.

Perkins Eastman is designing the project in coordination with the city’s Bureau of Engineering.

City officials insist that the cost of the renovation has risen due to complications from its proximity to the freeway and the Los Angeles River.

This sky-high cost, however, is causing backlash.

“This project will be like all the other money laundering schemes!” one angry Californian raged on X.

“The train to nowhere, the wildlife crossing, and let’s not forget housing for the homeless. We are being hosed by the Democrat rule in this state! No new projects until forensic audits can be done in California!”

“Is it lined with gold?” another quipped.

Others denounced it as a “sick joke.”

But the cost isn’t the only thing that is likely to raise eyebrows. A stark difference between the two proposals is the inclusion of gender-neutral bathrooms in the 2026 plan — a design that was a priority for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, Kingsnorth said.

“This is something that’s more common for equity and inclusion,” Kingsnorth said.

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