With a friend for a short evening class. The school center is very big and cleanread more

This was my first time here, to see the 2013 Mayoral Forum sponsored by the Community Free…read moreDemocrats club. I think I want to join. These Upper West Side old folks are feisty! I'm sure they're lots of fun. Where else can you yell at mayoral hopefuls and not get escorted out of the room? The only thing that would have made it better... cocktails! Here's the summation of the Forum. No catcalls. Only polite applause: http://youtu.be/7NLBWTrHRqQ

Half the place continues to be under construction, including the pool, for going on 5 years.read more

The NYC Parks Department maintains a bunch of recreation centers in the city that are often refered…read moreto as City Gyms. These include Community Centers, Field Houses, and Nature Centers and offer services such as indoor pools, weight rooms, basketball courts, dance studios, boxing rings, art studios, game rooms and libraries. The Hansborough center is mostly a gym/sport destination (though they are opening a computer room soon). I go here to work out - lifting weights, cardio on the machines, walking on the track, and sometimes swimming. They have a few classes and offer some after school stuff for kids. I don't know how crowded this place gets on evenings and weekends since I come in the middle of the day, but it seems well-used and therefore well kept. Plus, it's in a historic part of Harlem. The best thing is the price. $50/year for most centers, $75/year for ones with a pool. If you get a membership to one, you can visit ANY rec center in the system in any of the 5 boroughs. If you're looking for a place to work out and have basic needs, then a City Gym is a good choice. This one in particular if you live uptown. They're not all this nice, and the one in Chelsea is rumored to be even nicer. I'd do some investigating to see if the center near you is a place you'd spend time. If you come here, don't be fooled by the 134th street address. What you want to do is walk east along 135th (if you're coming from the B/C or 2/3 stations) until you come to Lennox Terrace apartment complex (just east of Malcolm X Blvd./Lennox Ave.). You'll see a little street that runs behind the building along the parking lot. Turn in there. The Rec center is on the left on a tiny strip of street labeled, helpfully, 134th. Don't confuse it with the Joseph Kennedy rec center at the end of the street.

The Older Adult Center at Lincoln Square offers lunches 5 days a week. They are tasty, the…read moresuggested $1.50 contribution is cheap, and the folks are friendly. However, the food service is an environmental nightmare. The meals come in aluminum trays and are served with plastic utensils and all wrapped in plastic inside plastic. After you eat, you have only one garbage pail to throw the remainders into. Nothing is recycled or composted. The food itself is methane-intensive and ocean-depleting: bovine milk in every meal and a meat or fish main dish 4 days out of 5. That's the theory, anyway. But the reality is worse. About half of the days when the main dish is vegetarian on the menu, you find out after opening the containers that it is not at all vegetarian. Today the menu said vegetarian chili, but in reality the dish was beef stew. Warnings of menu changes are posted only rarely. As for the atmosphere, it is spartan, but that is OK. What is not OK is the antagonistic message that you first see when you walk in: "No public restrooms". What philosophy of service to seniors does that express?

I bring food donations from the school at which I work to Phelps House (Senior Center) at Goddard…read moreseveral days a week. I find the people who work here friendly and genuinely concerned about their clients. Most are bilingual. I have heard them speaking in Spanish, Russian and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). If you are 60 and over it is free to join and they offer breakfast to members for $1 and lunch for $2. Their breakfasts consist of several items. For instance on Fridays they serve omelets with veggie home-fries inside, hot cereal, milk, bread, fruit cup, juice and coffee. Not bad for a buck!

This review only relates to the pool. Actually, this review would be a 3.5…read more I came here for the open lap swim, which is from 7 am to 8:30 am, and I will say that the pool was not that bad. The pool was divided into specific areas for fast, medium, and slow swim speeds. Also, there is another section for people who want to do other activities like water aerobics. The other swimmers seemed to be aware of their swim speed and assigned themselves accordingly. Be aware that no one under the age of 18 (even with an adult) is allowed in the pool during these hours. Upon arriving the "security guard" who sits on the deck was super intense. He yelled at me for having my phone and book bag on the deck. Here's the thing. For this swimming program, I needed to show the program's coordinator/supervisor that I registered for the program. One can either print the confirmation form or show the supervisor your phone. I tried to explain this to the "security guard", but he seemed to be too drunk on power. Other than that, I had a nice swim. The locker room is pretty barebones, but it does have plenty of lockers where you can store things.

Thomas Jefferson Center grounds and facilities has something for everyone. There's a baseball…read morefield, basketball courts, running track, picnic grounds, swimming pool and more! The grounds are always clean. Flowers bloom in the spring. They have the dog run and park too. Playground equipment is provided for the smaller children too. There's nothing negative to say about the service this park provides to the community. They have programs all year around. Highly recommend!