April 9: Westwood Community Pool

Pools of a certain era were built in meters, not yards. Perhaps it was a time when even the most pessimistic of American builders believed meters might catch on. But, today, these pools are simply nearly almost the right length — not quite long enough to spot the difference on sight, but just long enough to wonder why the swim takes more time than it should.

The Westwood Community Pool is of this era. The tiles are chipped and the air is old. The lockerroom is designed as a kind of communal cement octagon that has to be hosed down with regularity. Women do water aerobics in the indoor block of a pool, and kids learn drills from a slightly older teenager wearing an LA84 t-shirt.

All of this is a remnant of the 1984 Olympics. An ode to Los Angeles of sorts, to the people who can one day dream of swimming meters in the Olympics too.