Regarding the June 6 news article “Some lifeguards sit out summer”: The city has spent millions building nice pools but won’t hire lifeguards full time, much less provide extra pool hours for people who work different schedules.

Public pools and parks should be open in the early morning and late evening. Not everybody can follow the 9-to-5 schedule. The city of Raleigh is moving toward a “look but don’t play” attitude with its parks and pools.

Several years ago, Kiwanis Park had open fields that both non-organized and organized folks played on all the time. Not everyone should have to join a team to be able to play pick-up sports in our public facilities. The Kiwanis Park was a great social mix success. Then the city turned the nice open fields used constantly into two muddy, locked, prison-like, 6-feet-high chain-link, fenced-in fields where no one plays anymore.

Millions were spent to rebuild Pullen Park, but using it is limited, due to little available parking or a shuttle service.

I hope Raleigh gives serious thought to fixing its park policies and replaces the “look but don’t play” attitude before it tackles the Dix park.