Recreation Center 54

Review for pool (I went one weekday evening at 8pm)
Pool is clean. Because it’s small there is very little crowd. Men’s locker room is not great but way better than the Chelsea Center. Overall, well worth $ 75 for 6 months.

Extremely rude and unprofessional lifeguard. I tried to ask him a question, and he yelled at me and told me to go back upstairs. Not sure why. And I said to him «Can I just ask you a question?» And he told me to go upstairs again. I said «But I don’t want to go upstairs, I just want to ask you something.» And he said no. Guess he was just mad I interrupted his Candy Crush Saga. What is he going to tell me if I’m drowning and need help? To go upstairs?

So, maybe compared to the other recreation centers this one isn’t bad. (I haven’t been to the others though, so I can’t really compare.) However, if you want a regular gym membership and think this will do, you’re in for a rude awakening. The «track» can only have a max of 3 people running at one time. The place smells like the subway (aka urine) and it’s very barebones. If you just want a place to exercise with basics, and don’t mind the smell, this is the place for you.

This is the cheapest gym in the city since it’s operated by the NYC Parks Department. It costs $ 150 a year which seems like a lot, but some gyms charge nearly that amount per MONTH (like another person said, it used to be $ 75 a year until Bloomturd doubled the price). This gym is close to Midtown Manhattan and the E, M, and 6 lines which makes it convenient. It has a weight room, basketball court, pool, and miscellaneous community room. However, it’s no-​frills. They don’t have the amenities of the YMCA or 24 Hour Fitness. Nevertheless, I come here to work out, not to get a smoothie or to use a steam room.
The weight room has most of the standard weights like the bench press, free weights, preacher curl, a pull-​up machine, and a few others. There are also three treadmills. Whenever I use this gym, I usually see the same light skinned personal trainer who looks like a WWE wrestler. I strive to look like him. Most of the employees at the gym are friendly. Some, however, are assholes. One employee started acting like a bitch because it was a Saturday and the place was scheduled to close at 4 PM. I was in the locker room putting my shoes on at 3:59 PM.
Speaking of the locker room, there are a few shady characters who congregate there. They don’t work out. They use the facility just to use the shower (and I’m pretty sure they didn’t pay the $ 150 fee). Just ignore them and ignore the jackass employees and focus on getting in shape.

I have been using their pool for few years now. When I started, the membership fee was $ 75 for whole year. A year or two ago, they bumped the fee to $ 150 per year. Nevertheless, the price is unbeatable considering that its New York City and that you can use any New York City Parks and recreation centers in the City with that membership.
The staffs are nice and friendly depending on their mood, which is hillarious. Some days they will greet you from the moment you walk in, and some days they don’t even bother to stop their personal conversations and help you unless you wait for a while. The locker rooms are probably the most disgusting I have ever seen. Everything is so old and broken and dirty. You’ll see the cleaning lady mopping the floor every now and then, but the facility is so old, it doesn’t do her justice.
Despite all of that, I don’t mind going here for a swim every now and then. The location is very convenient and the price is reasonable. The pool is clean and the water is consistently warm. They have scheduled open and lap swims everyday. The active life guards in duty makes sure that the swimmers are following the rules and staying in the fast, medium or slow lanes based on their speed.

My review is for the swimming pool and the locker room. I have been to a few NYC recreation centers. This one by far has the cleanest locker room. The pool never gets extremely crowded and the water temperature seems to always be on point.

Great place (but could be cleaner/​hire more diligent and dedicated workers) for the value. I love the swimming pool here, though I wish there were more adult swim lap times. I can’t stand general swim because the pool gets super-​crowded and disorganized.
I’ve run the track several times, but it’s kind of outdated looking and sometimes dusty/​dirty, as well as crowded.

***REVIEW FOR POOL ONLY***
One of the greatest things about the New York Public Pools is their variety and their ability to exist in the damndest of facilities.
After picking up a lost sweater from a bar in the NYU area, I was going to take the 6 train up to 23^rd and see a pool there. But destiny intervened, and my legs simply refused to unfold at the stop, and I found myself at the 51^st/​53^rd stop.
Dodging through the broadcloth shirted Midtown East crowd and putting on the blinders to all the wine bars and steakhouses around, I made a beeline up to E.54^th, took a right, and headed East until I saw #348, a flat façade of a brick castle.
The elevated, oval front desk faced away from the entrance, so I walked around to see two staff members bobbing up and down to the music of a pop/​hip-​hop radio station. They were quick to help me, though, and point out a shelf of handy schedule printouts for the indoor pool schedule that had started on Sunday ⁹⁄₁₁.
The guy was nice and let me take my time trying not to look like a total asshat in my membership ID photo. The card was produced on the spot, and I was free to go in. First, I took a peek through the window down two and a half stories at the pool. Only a part of the pool was visible, and I could see one lane cordoned off and a big blue free-​for-​all elsewhere.
«No lanes, huh?» I asked, only to be reminded that it was free-​adult-​swim until 7 p.m. — the current time was about quarter ’til. Nevertheless, I went into the wide, rectangular locker room. This is actually one of the more neglected locker rooms I’ve seen. There were changing cabanas, but the benches and waxy curtains were stained to the point that no one was using them, electing to get buck nekked out in the open. The floor itself was okay, but made of large square tiles with grouting in between… and grouting is always gross and creepy no matter what.
Several of the lockers were broken, which I found out after putting all my stuff in a defunct one. Signs shouted, «DO NOT LEAVE YOUR WALLET OR MONEY IN LOCKERS,» «USE A STRONG LOCK,» and such. So much for that…
Anyway, I suited up, contorted myself under the shower because its head only reached my boobs (and I’m 5’4″ on a good day), then walked out the wrong door to the spectacle of two sweaty men practicing tai chi at the top of the stairwell.
Doing an about face, I found the other wetter and therefore dirtier stairwell and descended into the pool area. People were swimming the pool widthwise, and the lifeguard cautioned me that I only had about ten minutes before the pool closed for fifteen minutes before lap swim. I thanked him very much for the info and plunged into the side that was 7 feet deep. All was dim and blue.
The shape of this pool was extremely unusual, and therefore thrilling compared to the monotony of other pool floors. The poolside had a platform that cut a square U-​shape into the pool, from which extended a 9-​foot deep trough. Meanwhile, the rest of the pool progressed from about 4 feet to 7 feet (or 9 feet in the weird middle portion) deep. I’m sure this makes no sense to anyone; you’ll just have to check it out.
About twenty lengths later, I realized people were leaving. How mellow! I’m not even sure a whistle had been blown. Forced to leave the area, I plopped back up the 2.5 stories up the drafty stairwell and alternated between doing stretches and standing stupidly in the shower to pass the 15 minutes before adult lap swim began.
The door to the pool was accidentally locked when I went back down, so one other lady and I had to pound on it with both our palms until the lifeguard let us in, saying, «It’s open,» when it clearly was not.
The pool was amazingly empty, so I split one of the ultra wide three lanes with a super slow lady who was basically floating in some weird apparatus. I felt like I was in «The Cell,» minus J-​Lo and the endearing serial killer. Or maybe not.
Laps flew at first. At 98 lengths per mile, I could get from one side to the other in only two breaths. After a while, though, all the turns and sheer repetition kind of wore me down, and at one point, a contact lense even ejected itself from my eye. Luckily, it was captured in my goggle cup, and I managed not to drop it into the abyss when re-​inserting it at the end of the lane.
When a few others joined the slow lane, I went to the fast, where I swam all the way at the edge, along where the pool floor dropped into that trough. It was great; except for some mofo in plaid boardshorts who kept grazing me even if there was a TON of room, then stopping every two laps to laze around.
I ended in the middle, doing easy backstroke laps since the lengths were so short and the ceiling so full of beams for visual guidance.
All in all, spinning ’round this liquid cocoon might make you a bit batty if you do it on a daily basis, but once in a while, it sure is a change of scene and potential confidence booster. If you’re lucky, too, it’ll be uncrowded.

Great value for health club. Beautiful swimming pool & gym. Equipment is old & men’s locker roomiz dismal. Hours not so convenient, but cannot beat price.

Recreation Center 54
$ 75/​year or $ 37.5÷6 months — access all NY Parks & Recreation Centers
*Remember to bring a medium or full-​sized towel and strong key lock.
Good staff.
Indoor pool, indoor track and HS regulation basketball court.
Treadmills
Ellipticals
Steppers
Recumbent Bike
Upright Bike
No power rack
1 x Flat Bench and Incline Bench
1 x Preacher Curl
1 x Smith Machine
Limited Selection of Weight Machines
Complete Dumbbell Set 5 – 100 lbs in 5 lb. increments.
Abysmal quantity of Olympic Plates. 6−8×45s, 35s, 25s, 10s, 5s. Don’t remember if they have 2.5s.
Powerlifters see Brownsville for three 9 foot closed power racks!
Or Thomas Jefferson for two open power racks.
Or Asser Levy for one power rack (not recommended for +500 lb. lifts).
Olympic Lifters see Lost Battalion Hall for a dedicated instruction and training facilities (additional fee required).

It’s a nice place, though the staff is iffy. The locker room is big and pretty clean.
There’re some really cool things about this place: there’s an indoor track (small but existent!) and the building is really cool, with high cathedral ceilings. The pool is right out of the 1920’s (I imagine) :)
The floor zones around the track are too small but it’s survivable. I think there’s just 1 class room and it’s taken every night from what I gather.