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The Oceanside City Council voted 3-2 last week to delay opening the new El Corazon Aquatics Center while it considers whether to save money for its operation by closing the 50-year-old Brooks Street pool.
Mayor Esther Sanchez voted no and said she was outraged at the idea, which would close a heavily used pool in a older, low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood to open the new aquatics center in a wealthier, less ethnically diverse part of the city.
“I am really surprised that this would come up, that we would be taking from the poor to give to the rich,” Sanchez said during the discussion Wednesday. “That’s what it looks like . we are going to deny a huge resource to kids that cannot even get to the beach.”