Five years ago we sold our large home in the suburbs where we had raised our two daughters. We…read moremoved to a lovely historic house with apartments by the river in downtown St Paul just blocks from this large 1960's Salvation Army. A year later my husband left to homestead his mother's inherited condo. Finding myself alone and unwilling to go to bars, I walked over and joined a women's and a senior's group at this Salvation Army. It was the BEST decision I could have made! Years ago I tutored junior high kids in East Harlem, taught camping hiking skills to inner city fresh air camp kids, was hired on an Antioch work study semester to be the first Spanish interpreter at age 19 at Jacobi ( welfare) municipal hospital in the Bronx, was the first college student hired by the Job Corps working in downtown LA teaching Chicanas how to read, then assisted the Exec Director Robert Coard at Boston's largest Community Action $20 million program ABCD right out of college. My last job in the public sector was as an EEO Officer for CETA under the Dept of Labor for 10 counties in Massachusetts. (James Q.Stevens, head of EEO for Region One for the Dept of Labor counseled me to strive to go " high" in the corporate private sector then later move to government at a more effective level. I did for 20 years.) I spent four wonderful years within the Salvation Army, participating in their programs, accepting some of their wonderful donated food from Lunds and Byerlys , and observing TWO citadels' ( other on Noble Parkway, minneapolis) staff and participant children, families. SO many social service programs allow their staff to help themselves FIRST to all donations given the program. This is WIDESPREAD in almost all food shelves.... Not here at Salvation Army. This is a church that does not aggressively prosytelize to participants. Instead they maintain order in the HUGE food give aways through more " Christian" philosophies in crowd control for the homeless and the low to middle income. ( They welcome and conduct Sunday church services for those interested.) These populations FILL this ( and other) Salvation Army 3-5 days a week waiting patiently for the LARGEST food giveaways ( almost a full grocery cart, folding style cart) I have ever seen in my life. All these people would be starving if it were not for the Salvation Army that DAILY send trucks to their local supermarkets to pick up almost expired food. So you find the homeless, students, seniors, immigrants and middle class folk that are unemployed altogether waiting for this food. This is a MAMMOTH undertaking. This Citadel and some others also run an official food shelf but only for qualified residents in their specific assigned region of care. These food banks help those who qualify with utility bills just before disconnect, sometimes a little for rent, finding housing, sometimes clothing/ warm jackets blankets, hats mittens gloves, and at this Citadel an Annual children's' NEW winter coat give away, etc. etc etc. TRULY AMAZING care. They have after school programs and day care at prices according to what people can afford. They have in EVERY major city the VERY BEST program in the country for SUCCESSFULLY helping folk quit drugs. I know, for in Virginia I would bring many inner city and other young people to their FULL year live-work-in programs. In Virginia ( and in every state), we had a brand new homeless shelter specifically for women and children. I would bring donations of food etc to this beautiful immaculate building. My four years in the Citadels of St Paul and Brooklyn Park, were wonderful. I developed lasting friendships with some women who had found themselves homeless and in their 70's ( now in public housing). I saw many homeless shelters and helped another young woman from Arkansas who had been to the Dignity Center in Minneapolis. My most favorite time was going on a women's Arts and Crafting weekend up north in the Salvation Army camp-- hadn't done this since my teens! Their only means of gaining income is through their Christmas Holiday Bell Ringing and some from donations through the year. ( I bell rang 3 years at Macy's in Roseville! COLD!). Donations have tragically substantially dropped in the last few years, so they had some staff layoffs and elimination of a few programs here at this Citadel. Salvation Army does back breaking work for the hundreds of suffering folk in downtown St Paul and spends EVERY cent on helping those in need. Their limited staffs live very frugally. I don't agree with some of their political views, but I deeply deeply respect their INTENSE HARD work in helping SO many impoverished frightened folk. Without all the back breaking work Salvation Army does nationally in ALL our communities, people would be suffering very very severely today.

Clean, modern facilities. Although right now there seems to be some construction work going on…read more.. wonder what it'll look like once it's complete? I was here for the Eagan Indoor Market (select Wednesdays) being held in one of the gathering rooms on the lower level. It was a bit smaller than I'd been anticipating from the list of vendors on the website, but it was still nice to browse local small businesses, and I'm glad the community center makes the time and space for folks to do so. While there, I scoped out what appeared to be the "main attraction" so to speak, the fitness center, which has a large gymnasium, equipment, and an indoor track. They had plenty of showers, bathrooms, water fountain/bottle refill station, coat racks, vending machines with beverages and snacks, and a place to get changed and such. Seems really nice, but the pricing online seemed a bit steep to me ($40/mo.); a shame, my husband and I have been looking for an indoor track so we can run in the winter without worrying about slipping on the ice! There's also an indoor kids playplace ($8 fee) on the upper level and a senior center on the lower level. So they are trying to cater to all ages here. The parking lot is quite sizable, so no worries about finding a place to park (unless of course there's a big event going on at the festival grounds!). There are plenty of outdoor amenities in the surrounding Eagan Central Park too, such as a kid's playground, splash pad, fitness course, walking paths, and bandshell. There's also a postbox near the entrance of the building if you need to drop off some mail while you're here.

Visited on a Sunday for a kids birthday party. They have an inside jungle gym for kiddos and it was…read morea lot of fun. I wish the space was a little bigger as it can get a little crowded in the little space in front of the gym but all in all had a great time. Easy access to bathrooms near by as well along with a small party room connected.

The Comunity Rooms are spacious and offer many features such as AV equipment, TV's, projector,…read moremicrophones. Also sinks and counter space. Worked great for our event. I recommend keeping the doors closed as other events happening in the building can get pretty noisy.

Member for 4 years…read more Decent workout area with fewer "gym bros" than other more popular fitness centers. Access to the pool and arenas are great. The personnel needs more training on membership programs, facilities, and basic customer service skills. Ask for written information rather than rely on their front desk to provide accurate information. Two people working the same day can have different policy interpretations. This includes the aquatic center staff. I ended up cancelling due to life changes, and what was told to me as a pro-rated cancellation fee, was not true. Had I known, I NEVER would've don't yearly memberships. Losing out on hundreds of dollars due to their poor staff training is not serving the community.

Since moving to St. Anthony two years ago, every officer and staff member I've encountered has been…read morerespectful, attentive, and helpful in answering my questions. I feel extremely safe in this community, and the professionalism of this department is one of the main reasons I chose to live here. Recently, I've been working through a situation, and Leah G. has been outstanding to work with. Thank you to everyone in the department for all that you do!

This Saint your Papa's village! No, this is Saint Anthony's village…read more Minneapolis is in many ways dissimilar to a lot of other cities in the country, and one of the ways it is so different, is that has a lot of little Villages within the city. Buffalo has a couple of these but nothing quite compares to the ones here, and one of them is Saint Anthony Village. It actually has a huge Mall as part of it although it's in the City of Roseville technically - I'm not really sure how they define these things. Saint Anthony is sort of within Roseville. It's a nice affluent part of town a few miles north of downtown, with absolutely horrendous traffic. I like it and on the other hand I don't like it because of the traffic. It is the most popular Mall in town other than the gargantuan Mall of America. A lot of people from all over the area come to these parts if they don't want to Brave the massive Mall of America.

They kept on nagging me about being black. I felt very discriminated because they targetted me…read more These ladies were talking bad about the children "They I'm their waitress" which I felt hurt because I just needed help and I didn't think I did anything wrong. I wanted a basketball and they were very rude because I just wanted another one and she looks at me very weird compared to her other guest. She kept on lying to me saying things like "you come here" just because I seemed underage.

I like this Center very much and utilize many of the facilities and programs. However, I have…read morenoticed a serious problem in the area of the tread mills and electric exercise equipment. There is no signage that children are not allowed in or on them. I witnessed 2 young boys age 8, 9, 10 running around in there trying to use the tread mills...turning them way up almost getting hurt. I told them they should not play on the equipment. However, there is no supervision, or sign saying "children are not allowed on the equipment". If a child gets hurt up there New Brighton could be sued for no signage stating this. I told the front desk and they said they have cameras watching, but there is nothing to state no children and no help available if they get hurt & the front desk is too busy to watch what is going on up there all the time. This is dangerous for kids and dangerous for NBCC if someone gets hurt.

Beautiful and modern event center. My chief complaint is that the Champlin location is TOO FAR…read moreAWAY. But if you're in the area, it's a gorgeous venue for a medium sized event. The outdoor stage and stadium style terrace is nice and our audience had a nice view of the Mississippi River. The building is relatively small, but beautiful and has a large patio overlooking the river. There is a small playground next to the building, but it looks like it can only accommodate tiny children.

Nice new set up in the City of Champlin. Walking paths, boat docks in the summer, a dog exercise…read morearea, children's play area, meeting spaces and coming soon, a restaurant. I enjoy walking here, and there's a trail that goes under the highway if you'd like to expand your walk. See you on the trails!

Been here a few times with the kids. It is easy to navigate, has a decent amount of stuff to do,…read moreand the lifeguards are on point. It isn't Great Wolf Lodge, it is a manageable size, and has all the things you need - including nachos with the terrible but delicious cheese (that is so wrong yet so right). My kids like bouncing back and forth between the pool with the slides (a walk-in kind) and the lap pool nearby that is more your traditional pool. Prices are reasonable. Its a great way to burn some energy for a few hours.

So you've got this rec center in the middle of the hood. It offers all kinds of things for people…read morein the neighborhood. Playground, basketball, volleyball, yoga, exercise equipment, etc. are all offered and more. But it is the lap pool and swimming I'm writing about that is so awesome. A lightly chlorinated pool. That's right. They have a different filtration method here using sphagnum moss which significantly reduces the amount of chlorine in the water. There is nothing better then getting out of a pool and NOT smelling like a chlorine tablet. Less burning of the eyes and itching of the skin. A win all around. Plus they open @ 6:30am some days for you early morning risers and open it up from 5:30-7pm on other days (see website for schedule). Plus if you got the toddlers and young kids, there is the water park, 2 water slides, and a shallow pool to get them acclimated. Me likey.