DEAR WEHO: Swim team is hogging our pool

ADVERTISEMENT

Dear City Council Members,

We, a group of concerned citizens, are writing to bring to your attention a pressing issue regarding the current swimming lane allocation policy at the WeHo competition pool. It has come to our notice that this policy disproportionately favors a private, primarily male swim team, significantly limiting access to the pool for working people, women, and residents of West Hollywood during early morning hours before work.

The pool, which is a public facility funded by taxpayer dollars, currently allocates only 2 out of 10 lanes for public lap swimming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. This allocation is further restricted on Tuesdays and Thursdays to accommodate the private swim team, which uses more than half of the pool’s lanes during these prime hours. This situation leaves many residents without a viable option for morning exercise and goes against the principle of public first access.

Pools in other areas such as Burbank and Echo Park manage to strike a balance by renting out some lanes to swim teams while ensuring sufficient availability for the general public. For instance, they rent out 5 of their 20 lanes, leaving 15 available for public use. We believe a similar approach can be adopted at WeHo to better serve the needs of all community members.

Given these circumstances, we urgently request a reassessment of the current policy. We propose that all 10 lanes be returned to public lap swimming on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and that the number of lanes available to the public be increased from 2 to 5 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

We hope the City Council will take immediate action to address this imbalance and prioritize fair access to the WeHo competition pool for all residents, reflecting true community values of equity and inclusivity.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thank you for considering our concerns. We look forward to your prompt response and to a resolution that supports the health and well-being of all West Hollywood residents.

Sincerely,

Eileen O’Meara
Marc Harnly
Tatiana Moshensky
Grace Wakabayashi
Mitch Kampf
Edward Brown
Alex Maggioni
Marcus Neupert
Nav Gupta
Jodi Colburn
Susan Goldman
Josh Spector
Gizelle Zohar

5 1 vote
Article Rating
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

11 Comments
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
WeHo Girl
WeHo Girl
3 months ago

Swim team is a non profit organization, most of the team members are West Hollywood residents who contributed financially to build this pool to begin with. They also pay significant amount on a monthly basis to sustain the pool. So why don’t all this bitter people on the list join the team as well, so they can swim all together 🙂 swim team welcomes all the members 🙂 I think that would be a great solution:)

Mr Watson
Mr Watson
3 months ago

I would never question the courage …..of someone willing to swim in that pool.

Susan
Susan
3 months ago

I had questions about a similar situation at the pool a while ago, and it was explained to me that Weho needed the revenue from the swim clubs. But this really is hard to deal with, especially at the time of year when our own population is swimming a lot more.

mermaid wannabe
mermaid wannabe
3 months ago

I swim 4-5 mornings a week, and join in this request. Swim team members most readily can compact themselves into fewer lanes, with six or more per lane, as they are swimming at predictable speeds. The general public swimmers have greater difficulty in grouping together and they usually are limited to three per lane, meaning only six lucky lottery winners can swim before work on Monday Wednesday and Friday!

Una Mae Buggins
Una Mae Buggins
3 months ago

I add my name in support.

Morty
Morty
3 months ago

Sounds reasonable to me. It’s a public pool not a private pool.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
3 months ago

The West Hollywood Swim Team has deep roots in the community and I understand that staff wants to be accommodating. But the high demands being placed on the pool require a balanced approach to insure that all residents have access to the pool.

Susan
Susan
3 months ago
Reply to  Steve Martin

It may not be the West Hollywood swim team. It might be a swim team that is renting space. There has not been any problems with the blocks of time that the West Hollywood swim team uses throughout the year. Love them!

C'mon Sense
C'mon Sense
3 months ago

In response to “We hope the City Council will take immediate action to address this imbalance and prioritize fair access to the WeHo competition pool for all residents, reflecting true community values of equity and inclusivity.”

—– The majority of the City Council are Leftists. And like most Leftists, they purport ‘equity and inclusivity’ and actually do nothing of the sort, especially if you’re from the Right. It’s become predictable and quite entertaining. In any event, good luck with your request. It’s a reasonable one that should be honored.

Joshua88
Joshua88
3 months ago

What they request is reasonable, beyond doubt.

TomSmart
TomSmart
3 months ago
Reply to  Joshua88

Yup