They have grown too quickly and the quality of the coaches has suffered particularly for the travel…read moreteams.

My son joined Brooklyn Basketball Academy (BBA) during the fall season last year, and he has made…read moreincredible progress during his time there improved, especially with dribbling, shooting, and strength training. Coach Gio and Kyle are always very helpful in ensuring the players practice their drills and understand the fundamentals of the sport while having fun and teaching them sportsmanship on an off the court. They offer travel games but also have in-house league games, so the kids learn offense and defense while working together as a team. BBA has also helped my son develop emotionally as a young man with the positive influence of his coaches. He was allowed to volunteer this summer and help coach the younger groups, which has only helped him love the game even more and understand the importance of mentorship. BBA not only has one of the nicest indoor basketball courts in Brooklyn, but it's also a great environment. They have built a community, not just an academy.

Prospect Park is a beautiful park. It gets overshadowed by Central Park, but I think we like it…read morethat way. We're okay with gatekeeping it even though it's not really even hidden. It's gorgeous, it's spacious - no tourists, no horse rides.

'An urban oasis' first comes to mind when I think about our first visit to Prospect Park. The…read moreoverall experience was certainly positive, with some fine points. As a visitor to the city, finding parking on a weekday afternoon was near impossible, until it became possible after what felt like 25 minutes of searching for a spot. The park is truly sprawling and there are many places to explore, including pavilions, bridges, falls, a pond, a creek, and endless paved trails. We also couldn't help but notice that the park overall may not have been maintained consistently, based on the extensive weeds in fountains, for instance. We saw at least two cafes that had pastries, sandwiches, and beverages on their menu that looked good enough to make us think we'd definitely go there if we lived locally. All in all, I'm grateful for this space being available for locals and visitors to enjoy, and hope it is maintained and stays open for many more years.

Today is such a beautiful day to spend outdoors. I decided to take my nephews out but I wasn't…read moreexactly sure where to go. All the parks around our way was really crowded so we decided to venture off and find one they would enjoy. They were able to get their own bball hoop to play around. You already know I had to show them my skills and yes I still have it. There are plenty of shady areas to relax while the kiddies run around or to even read a book. Surprisingly it wasn't even loud either.

Carroll Park is a small neighborhood park, good for a scooter ride or a climb on a jumble gym. A…read morelarge basketball court area faces Court Street. This is the best spot for a child's scooter ride. The area really needs more benches for adult seating. There are only a few in the very large area. The fenced back portion of the park consists of a courtyard with rest rooms. There are also two fenced play areas, one for smaller children, with jungle gyms and swings. One side of the park faces the neighborhood Carroll School. Could this technically be the front of the park? The park is fine for use in the neighborhood. But it would benefit from an update and sprucing up. New brighter colored playground equipment, a sand area and more benches would be a great start.

This is my 1st time down here at Pier 2. My sis and I came down here so she can rollerskate. It's…read moreso nice down by the water. At Pier 2 They have Pickel Ball, Rollerskating, Basketball, Handball/ Racketball and Fitness. It's a little chilly but cool.

Came to these Brooklyn Bridge Park courts at 8am on a summer Friday with my work bestie to get a…read moresweat in. There we were, a former division 3 starter and a former high school JV back up point guard going head to head in spot ones, giving the Manhattan skyline that stood tall in the background a show to start the day. The infamous "Battle for the Brooklyn Bridge," as some pundits are calling it. We were on one of the five courts, and there I was playing my typical game dribbling the air out of the ball to get a struggle bucket. He was lowkey cooking me I can't even lie. His 3pt percentage from treball was odee shooting hesi hang pulls... I would never say this to his face but he is a wonderful person and a gifted basketball player... it's a shame he's 5'6. After the war of the behemoths, endorphins flowing from a good sweat, we just sat there taking in the sites and talking about how much we love the game. Basketball genuinely makes me feel like a little kid again. It gives me that pure happiness and sense of purpose that I have spent my adult life trying to replicate in something else. Also, shoutout to the work besties of the world. You don't fully appreciate them until one of you leaves the job. IG @jnov_ Tiktok @jnov__

I have been a member at the Prospect Park YMCA since 2021, and this has got to be the most poorly…read moremanaged YMCA I have ever been to. I stayed a member for so long because it's a convenient walk from my house, but I recently left here to join the Life Time and I couldn't be happier. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly from my experience. The good: The pool. You really cannot get this anywhere else in/around Park Slope. That said, it is often crowded, with 4+ swimmers per lane, and the swim lane etiquette is not the best. They have lanes divided by speed - low, low/medium, medium, and fast - but basically I've found there is one fast lane, and all of the rest are slow. It feels like the fast-lane users are either former Olympic / Masters level swimmers, so I have to be in this awful position where I'm getting passed all the time in the fast lane, yet people get angry with me for going too fast in the other lanes. That's just my experience though. The bad: The free weight room. Basically, everything is overcrowded, and the etiquette is horrible. The free weight room has ONE power rack, which is insane for such a large gym. This is compounded by the hoards of teenagers that camp at the gym during peak time, sometimes leading to long queues to use any of the equipment. And the etiquette is some of the worst I have seen. People leave weights lying around on the floor or haphazardly put plates back wherever they feel, leading to a ton of clutter and general chaos. There is usually an attendant in the free weight room, yet they do absolutely nothing. Generally, the staff sucks. They do not greet you and just generally seem disinterested except when they are talking amongst themselves. The ugly: The locker rooms are just horrendous. Everything is filthy with dust everywhere. The lockers are super outdated, busted and rusting all over. There are often cockroaches in the dry sauna. But the worst is the showers. I think that was the final straw for me. It genuinely feels like a prison shower in that half the shower curtains are missing, and I even saw a bunch of blood on one of them. The ceiling is covered in mold; they don't even bother to paint over it. I don't need much, but I at least expect a clean and pest-free locker room. The state of it is shameful honestly. There is also no towel service, which is insane for how much you pay. Meanwhile, Harbor Fitness has towels, and the membership there is $76/month. All of this would be fine out of a low-cost, no-frills gym, but the cost of the regular individual membership is $96 per month, which is just out of line. The value is practically non-existent. They will also try to scam you when you try to cancel, saying there is a 15-day notice period, despite that being against the law in NYS. Bottom line, do yourself a favor and don't join this gym.

I have been a loyal patron of this gym for about ~3ish years but only recently started taking my…read moremembership seriously in the past year and started going here regularly. This gym is the best gym in the area by miles and I thoroughly enjoy my workouts here. Yoga classes are super fun, I love the instructors and unlike a lot of other gyms this place is truly home to a community. I enjoy seeing people of all ages and walks of life work out here, it's truly amazing and representative of the neighborhood. The high schoolers can be super annoying in the weight room and I know the staff has worked to curb their rowdiness by assigning them specific hours. I've heard a lot about towel service that used to be here but I've never experienced it, that would be nice to have back. The steam room and sauna are an absolute God send in the locker rooms and I really enjoy that the large pool has been segmented to avoid conflict with other swimmers. I've noticed if anything is out of order it doesn't stay that way for too long which I absolutely love. It's understandable in a big facility like this things will go out of order but maintenance is definitely on top of everything and deserves a shout out. It used to annoy me that the gym closed early but they definitely listened and extended their hours recently till 10 PM which I also greatly appreciate!!

I decided to quit the Armory after a promising few months. I got tired of waiting to use equipment…read morein the weight room, of the teens who never wipe anything down and of the kids in the cardio room who are there to play. Sad to go, it's a beautiful space and the staff is friendly. BTW quitting is NOT easy. I tried numerous times by email while I was travelling for work and landed up paying for months I never used.

After nearly a year of emailing and notifying the gym staff and "complaint box" about, I finally…read morequit this place. The staff doesn't help clean the place up, people don't re-rack their weights, the free weights and kettlebells are impossible to use because they can only be accessed by the classes, there's a single bench press area, a single squat rack/deadlift platform, spin bikes are only available during classes, two benches, and as I mentioned, nearly no available kettlebells and free weights outside of classrooms. Teens take over the place, as do unsupervised children. Lifting on a wooden floor is dangerous. I personally had to put up a "broken do not use sign" on a broken peleton, because the staff didn't notice. There's one plyo box that you have to run around to find. NO showers...in a gym. The manager, Chris, does not address your concerns, even after contacting him personally.

Perhaps it's because we spend a lot of time at a friend's place down the street, but this has…read morebecome one of my favorite playgrounds in Brooklyn. For starters, it's just a wonderful use of what was dead space underneath the subway overpass. It can be a little noisy, but shade on a hot summer day is pretty clutch. Perhaps it's because my kids are still little, but we get a whole lot of use out of the southern side of the park with the swings, jungle gyms, and splashpad. As it's fairly new (5-6 years old or so?), these things are still state of the art and a lot of fun for the kiddos. We've also had plenty of luck hosting birthday parties there, as it's not nearly as mobbed as Carroll Park a few blocks north. I also look forward to when we can take more advantage of the basketball courts, turf field, and maybe even the skate park on the north side of the space. Really, just an excellent playground to have in the area.

It's new. It's clean. It's shaded…read more Lots to love about this newly completed (finally) playground(s). Divided by Nelson St you get a combination of little kids to big kids to adult fun options. The South side has excellent playground equipment that is generally protected from a lot of the direct elements (think rainy day play). Cross over to the North side and you have some turf area for small soccer or similar. Short gated directly next to that there is a 3' mini ramp, rail and box features for the skate rat in you (or your kid). A small "exercise " area divides the skate zone from the half court basketball net. All of the North has a jogging/biking/walking track around the enclosed park. Considering it was a slog to complete and it's proximity to my home I'm loving St. Mary's!

Interesting to learn more about the local parks in Brooklyn…read more Dean Playground is named after Silas Deane (1737-1789). Deane was a Yale college educated Revolutionary War statesman. In 1774, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress. Two years later in 1776, he was sent along with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee to France to secure support for the Revolutionary War. Nice to see this neighborhood park filled with residents playing basketball and pickleball. A cute playground in Brooklyn.