Review: Tony Dapolito Rec Center - West Village, NYC
Decent weight room, serviceable pool, terrible staff.
The weight room here was my main gym for about 3 years and I made it work. It’s theoretically open year-round…except for the days when it’s inexplicably closed without warning, which gets very frustrating. There’s a decent amount of space, dumbbells from 5lb all the way up to 100lb, benches, and a place to do pullups. However, there’s no place to squat, no rack to allow for overhead lifting, and no good place to even set up a bar for deadlifting or any floor lifts. There are also some basketball courts, a tiny little indoor track that’s usually dotted with buckets to catch the water from the leaking roof, and a “dance room” with a mirrored wall which is great for kung fu practice, jumping rope, burpees, and all sorts of bodyweight stuff. The gym gets a bit crowded during peak hours (weekday evenings) but I was always able to find enough space to get my workout in. Then again, people tend to give me space when I’m doing turkish get ups, dumbbell snatches, burpees, and sweating like a maniac.
The indoor lap pool is open for most of the year. It’s a short pool (23 meters?) which throws off distances when doing a distance-based swim workout, but it’s generally clean and not too crowded. The lifeguards here don’t enforce the swim cap requirement, which warms my heart because I sweat like a horse when I wear a swim cap. Yes, even in the pool. They do like to close the pool early sometimes and if there’s a class going on before adult lap swim, they usually end late. I usually padded the adult swim hours by 15 minutes or so and tried to plan my swims accordingly. In the summer, they drain the indoor pool and force the lap swimmers outside to the neighborhood pool that all the little kiddies piss in. They still maintain adult lap swimming hours in the summer months (morning and evening), but the distance is even shorter (20m?) and it gets so crowded that it’s impossible to swim at times.
The shower situation here is also worth mentioning because it sucks. I used to swim in the mornings before work and apparently a lot of homeless people also use these showers in the morning. Let’s just say that it’s not the most hygienic showering situation (I’ve never even seen anyone cleaning the showers or locker room) so I would usually go home to shower. Hey, I only lived a couple of blocks away.
Despite its shortcomings, I would have given the facility four stars if not for the horrible staff. They close all the time without warning, which in all fairness is not up to the staff, but I got the distinct impression that they enjoyed turning people away when the gym was closed. Maybe that’s why they never posted signs ahead of time? I guess you can’t really complain too much considering the yearly membership costs only $75. That membership also gives you access to ALL city rec centers. I’ve also been to the ones in Williamsburg and Chelsea.
Tony Dapolito Rec Center
7 Carmine St
New York, NY 10014
