I can hope, right?

I can be immersed in quixotic levels of delusions, right?

Our beloved Long Beach suddenly reversing course, suddenly determined to enhance its Aquatic Capital of America calling card by endorsing the Coastal Commission's long-sought approval---which blessedly came last week---of a project that that has been on hold since it started shortly after the 2013 shuttering of the famed Belmont Plaza Pool that during its 35-year existence staged Olympic Trials, NCAA and AAU championships, many, many international and national competitions as well as countless college conferences and CIF title meets?

Not the city that has a harrowing ancestral lineage of committing to historically money-losing ventures as the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific, the city that once rebuffed Gene Autry's attempt to build a baseball stadium here because he would not call his team the Long Beach Angels, the city that shooed away Jet Blue and Gulfstream and the nearly 900 jobs that went with their departures, the city that recently attached by a unanimous vote of the City Council a four dollar an hour ``heroes raise'' to certain workers in local supermarkets with more than 300 employees which resulted immediately in two supermarket closures that left hundreds of people suddenly unemployed.

When I see our often enigmatic mayor, Mr. Robert Garcia, and our notoriously low-key City Manager, Taciturn Tom Modica, come out and express the joyful virtues of such a dramatic undertaking, I become giddy with joy.

Certainly, this undertaking will be costly---$61.5 million in Tidelands Funds long have been committed to it and the final tab figures to be in the $80 million range---but the benefits to the community will be immeasurable.

Think of the thousands of youngsters that will be able to use it throughout the year---Mr. Modica has already revealed his plans to employ shuttle services to transport kids from 11 parks in low income areas in LB to the pool---and the many high school and colleges and even national swimming meets that can be staged there and that would be a certain boon to the local economy.

Think what the Belmont Beach Aquatic Center---that is its proposed name---will do for civic pride.

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I mean, I've never heard one person in our fair metropolis say how blessed we've been to have an ancient boat from England moored in our city hemorrhaging nothing but money year after cloying year and the same goes with a fish tank that also has never turned a profit.

Of course, no one is more gleeful about these latest developments than those whose lives have long been attached to swimming endeavors.

``I'm very, very excited about what has happened, and I hope things can progress,'' says Susie Atwood, a two-time Olympic medallist who competed in two Olympic Games. ``I'm optimistic that this is a dramatic step forward, and what has me so optimistic is that our local politicians also seem to be for it.''

Ms. Atwood retains fond memories of the old Belmont Plaza Pool as she remembers winning the 100 and 200 backstroke there in the national swimming championships.

``I'm keeping my fingers crossed it eventually will come to fruition,'' says the long-time owner of a successful State Farm agency in Naples.

Another person who evinces excitement about the subject and also has bright reminisces of the Belmont Plaza Pool is Kathy Drum, an Olympian who's now a swimming instructor.

``How can I ever forget the Belmont Plaza Pool?'' says Ms. Drum. ``It's where I qualified to participate in the 1976 Montreal Olympics in the 400 meter freestyle. It was a great pool, and I'm certainly hoping Long Beach builds another one that will be beneficial to so many people.''

Olympic swimmers Kathy Drum, Left, and Susie Atwood

It certainly will be beneficial to the City Hall legacies of Messrs. Robert Garcia and Tom Modica, whose City Hall legacies have been teetering on the precipice in recent times. . .

Another renowned nautical figure in town, the Naples Gondola Getaway owner & the Naples Improvement Association president-for-life, Big Mike O'Toole, also is closely scrutinizing what has been unfolding on the new pool front.

Big Mike O’Toole set to row his 32 foot gondola Carolina

``It's taken a lot of turns, and figures to take a lot more,'' he says. ``A lot of things have to be approved before construction ever will start, and that figures to take time. How long? I have no idea I just know we started the process in 2013, and it's still an ongoing process. Certainly, I hope it goes through. It would be tremendous for the city.''

Mr. O'Toole is in a glad mood these days because his Valentine weekend for Gondola Getaway turned out to be quite a success compared to a year ago when it rained for two days and only two gondola rides were completed during that time.

``I was fearful the winds would get us Saturday night, but they subsided and there were no cancellations,'' he said. ``And, except for a three-hour period, the wind held on Sunday, too, and we wound up having another good day.''

Mr. O'Toole, who once sailed a 27-foot sail boat with a pal from Honolulu to Redondo Beach in a thrilling, if not frightening four-week journey, was so overjoyed Saturday night with his company's brisk business that he pulled out his biggest gondola from his Alamitos Bay dockyards---the 32-foot long, 7-foot wide, 14-passenger Carolina---and rowed 14 people around the Naples canals in an astonishing solo act of strength and artistry befitting a powerful gentleman with an old Papa Doc Duvalier president-for-life handle.