City of Piedmont is preparing to open its new city-owned aquatic center and they're starting to show off the facility to the public via YouTube.

One video with the city administrator describes the "conditioning" process for the pool's equipment. To summarize: Even though you can see water in the two pools, they're not ready for swimmers. Instead of feeling tempted to hop the fence, please be patient, Piedmonters. The city administrator also points out that this aquatic center "will be among the first all-electric municipal pools in the country."

(Earlier this year, Mountain View opened the first all-electric public aquatics center in California, after unexpected delays with the equipment installation and testing.)

In a second video, city staffers take Piedmonters (or Piedmontians?) on a tour through the entire complex. Watch the tour and see if you can figure out what they left out:

While the complex was still under construction a couple months ago, I headed up to take a tour of my own — and to specifically observe what isn't in the video, because it isn't there in reality. The new Piedmont aquatic center has no off-street parking:

• No parking lot.
• No parking deck.
• No parking garage.

That's why this video tour begins at the check-in desk, because that's where the aquatic center begins. No capital expenses or on-going operational commitments were made as part of the project for auto parking.

How will this work in practice?

• Many of the aquatic center's younger users will likely just walk there. It's right across the street from Piedmont Middle School and Piedmont High School.
• For other pool users, they can take AC Transit's Line 88, which stops ~2 blocks away; perhaps they can bike; they can take an Uber/Lyft/cab; or they can drive themselves and find on-street parking.

These constraints aren't stopping Piedmont from advertising their new aquatic center as what looks like a nice place to learn to swim, to swim competitively, to see your neighbors, or the host a party. Even without fully subsidized off-street parking (and even in a city with as many wealthy households as Piedmont) people are eager to use public swimming pools.

These aquatic centers are designed to last 50+ years. Thinking about half a century of methane gas emissions, that's why Mountain View struggled through the extra work of commissioning an all-electric aquatic center. A year or two of upfront delay now mean 50+ years of carbon-free on-site operations. It's why Piedmont is doing the same, and it's also why, in part, the City of Alameda just committed an additional ~$5mm to our own aquatic center, ensuring its powered fully by Alameda Municipal Power's 100% clean electricity.

But carbon emissions don't begin at the front door to an aquatic center, they accrue from the start of a swimmer's journey. No doubt that this aquatic center opens, many Piedmontese (as Google's AI Overview claims is how they refer to themselves) will drive there in cars with internal combustion engines. As a public facility, it will also be open Oakland residents, and Alameda residents, and everyone else. However, the little bit of friction introduced by finding on-street parking at the destination will nudge some of these swimmers to use a cleaner mode of transport like a bike or a bus to get there. It may also nudge drivers to chain together their trip to the pool with a visit to a nearby cafe or another business for an errand, making their overall day of traveling even more efficient in terms of emissions and mileage — and maybe even a bit more social.

In the long run, Piedmont's aquatic center will be "future proofed" in that it has committed today's funds to 50+ years of carbon-free on-site operations without also committing constrained capital funds to subsidize today's least efficient means of getting to the pool.