1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Expand Public Swimming Access in Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County has 533 miles of shoreline and only about a mile set aside for public swimming. That's a tenth of 1%. With 80% of the county's 600,000 residents living without water access, four public beaches simply aren't enough — and the numbers prove it. Fort Smallwood Park alone drew 205,000 visitors last summer, four times the traffic of the county's other beaches combined. The county already owns waterfront parks where swimming is prohibited but water quality is actively monitored for nearby private beaches. Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Park in Pasadena is one example — it has natural sandy shoreline and sits just a mile from an overcrowded Fort Smallwood. Opening these underutilized sites doesn't require building a beach from scratch. The county needs to stop treating public water access as a luxury and start treating it as the basic right it is. Prioritize converting county-owned waterfront parks into public swimming areas now.