J. Hood Wright Recreation Center

What more can you ask for? … Dog run, a nice circle pattern to take your animals for a walk and to do their business, play ground, courts… I don’t use the fitness center, just the public walk areas.
Deduction of stars because of the poop on the ground from inconsiderate people who don’t curb their dogs, glass on the ground here and there, dudes drinking Hennessy at the chess table, cops occasionally doing car searches along the outskirts of the park. J «HOOD» rriigghhtt… gotta have thick skin to go through their after sunset, but it’s on the up N up.

The place is small, but has a big pool room and study facilities. The small gym is in pretty bad shape. They don’t have many machines, and the few they have (2 spinners, 3 bikes, and 3 treadmills) seem always in use, or broken. The press bench is broken, and then there are a few weights. That’s it. Another difficulty is the loud music that’s being played all the time. There seems to be no process of negotiation about the music. People just turn it on as loud as possible, regardless of other members.
In general, I wish they expanded the gym and got some new machines. Staff is very nice, though.

We used to call it «Jew Park,» I know that it may sound terrible but it was actually the nice park, so it’s a compliment! But I’m just telling you what the locals call it.
It’s a good size park, has the play ground area, has a dog run on Haven Avenue, basketball courts, and a terrace that overlooks the Hudson River and George Washington Bridge. As a teenager, I would go there with my boyfriend, so in love, holding hands, and make-​out on that terrace until the cops came and shone a flashlight on us. It was so romantical!

The NYC Parks Department maintains a bunch of recreation centers in the city that are often refered to 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.
Though J. Hood Wright may be a good community center it doesn’t have very good fitness facilities. From what I observed when I took a tour it’s a small place that probably does more after-​school and senior programs than fitness stuff. The center itself is in a park and during the day mostly the older folks in the neighborhood use it, so that’s not a big surprise.
The fitness room is very small with about 6 machines and a paltry selection of free weights.
The center also didn’t have a very good ‘feel’, if that makes sense. I went through looking at the facilites and didn’t feel welcome and some of the dudes hanging around the fitness room were, frankly, creepy. So I won’t be back.
Since there’s no pool it only costs $ 50/​year to join this center.