I want to give all of the positives of this Y first: It is clean, the staff are very friendly and helpful, the pool people are wonderful, locker rooms are always clean, etc. I also never have to wait for machines. The overall vibe here is great.
Now for the criticisms: We moved here from Missoula, MT, so many of my criticisms are comparing this Y to the one in Missoula. So...in Missoula all of the classes were free (team sports for kids were $10 per session, and swimming lessons were an extra fee, but pretty much everything else was included in membership). This Y kind of uses an a la carte system, but the monthly fee isn't any cheaper than what we paid in Montana...?? There also is no indoor track, which for me is kind of a bummer since I love to run. Also, the family locker room is SMALL. I have a child (she is 8) who is a tomboy and dresses like a boy, but she is a girl, so I do not want her in the men's locker room. We use the women's locker room because the family one is just too tiny...but every time we go in the women's locker room people give us crazy looks and sometimes people say, "there is a family locker room..." to which I say, "she's a girl..." I honestly would use the family locker room to avoid this exchange every single day over and over again, but it's just too small. Finally, it is kind of annoying to stand at the desk in line to wait to have the staff swipe my card. Why not install a keypad so people can login themselves? This is what they did in Missoula and it worked great. No lines, no stress for the staff...
Finally, I want to say that there is one thing at this Y that is superior to the Y in Missoula, and it's a huge deal for my kids who are avid swimmers: They have open/free swim all day, and they allow the kids to swim in the lap lanes. In Missoula the open swim times were limited to just a few hours a day, and kids weren't allowed to swim laps. Apparently they were not full members who deserved to be allowed to swim laps like adults, even if they were good swimmers who were swimming in a serious manner. This annoyed (and kind of offended!) me. My kids swim laps and often are more diligent in this then many adults in the pool. So I am very impressed that the pool staff at Oak Park allow this. This one factor redeems every criticism I listed above. Thanks, Oak Park--my kids really appreciate this fair treatment, and I do, too. :-) read more