Cranford Parks & Rec have wonderful programs for children & seniors. As a youngster, my daughter…read moreparticipated in their softball league for many years. It showed her teamwork & pride. She made many friends among girls she would have never met in the various schools, & re-united with them in Jr. & High School- built-in buddies! She also attended their sponsored dances & always had a ball. Fast-forward 30 years. Now I'm 65 & have enrolled in several of the activities offered to our Seniors at the Cranford Community Center for FREE! I go to their Meditation class, Beginner's Canasta group, Beginners' Ma Jonng (no, you don't have to be Chinese or Jewish), Pinocle Club, & Senior's Yoga. Without exception, I have found the many men & women friendly, courteous, & happy to teach you. I have not encountered any "clicks" personally. It's so much fun to learn something new & make friends at the same time. I was interested in a few more activities offered, such as Crochet & Knitting Club (my girlfriend says it's great, with nice people) the Art Class (which is fabulous), & Beginner's Tai Chi Chuan- but these are offered at times that are inconvenient for me. All in all, this is a wonderful place to spend time, & I would recommend any of the widely varied activities, classes, or clubs to any Senior that has extra time on their schedule. Your taxes are going to good use. Many surrounding towns, like Clark & Westfield, have only limited activities offered to their Seniors. Too bad for them.

retired IRS tax preparers who come out to help seniors with their tax preparation free of charge.read more

The Baird is the fourth "part" of Meadowlands park (See my review of Meadowlands park). The Baird…read moreis like the central hub for the park serving as the community center for not just the park, but really the town, handling pretty much all recreational affairs and park usage. For my job for example, if we wanted to use the field we had to select a time to reserve it for practice with whatever sport we'd be preparing for. I like this because it's organized and fair. The Baird is also where you purchase and renew your badge for the pool which convenient. The building hosts other things such a book drives and classes for kids but also houses the Pierro Gallery where many exhibits and events take place on the second floor and are too well organized. Surrounding the Baird are basketball courts and tennis courts making feel very much a part of Meadowlands park.

I almost drowned and they kicked all my friends out. I get it if it was one thing but kicking all…read moremy friends out when they didn't do nothing wrong. It's kind of cruel and then they started talking shit about me and all of my friends and just talking so much shit going to the front office and talking shit about me and just yelling at us very disrespectful never coming back here.

Needs a deep clean, top to bottom. Parking can get tough, we come for swim lessons and have to show…read moreup early or walk a few blocks down. Lessons are great. Bring a swim cap and lock for your locker. There never seems to be soap in the family bathroom, but it's nice to always have the heat on in the locker rooms. The pool also usually a warm temperature for the water.

I came from one of UCs where the gym is fabulous so my bar is super high. To be honest, I was…read moreextremely disappointed when I visited. Well later I learned this is the best of all five in New Brunswick campus. The following are the reasons why it's such a disappointment to me: 1. I'm a morning person and prefer to workout first thing of my day, yet gym only opens at 7am which is already not early. On top of it, it changes hour to 8am, or 9am, sometimes to 11am during breaks or summer. sometimes won't open at all. If you're serious about training like me, you must be familiar that consistency is key. Yet the schedules make me think the gym is against morning people. 2. The layout of fitness room is a train wreck to be honest. Machines are way too close to each other. One can be in other people's way even when working out. It's not just inconvenient, it's actually DANGEROUS. Plus, there's only ONE machine for each exercise. The whole fitness room probably has the size of two decent parking garage. Which is WAY too tiny given the number of people on campus. 3. The whole building is POORLY designed. The parking lot is on the opposite side of the building so you get extra walk because of poor design. Another thing is, the building size looks decent yet it has so tiny space for fitness room. 4. The power lifting room is okay. It only has 4 squat racks and 2 deadlifts platforms. Not even 1/3 of my previous gym. But surprisingly, not many people use them anyway so it's good. There's always a space when I go to in the morning. So two stars are for the power gym. 5. The swimming pool looks great but I don't swim that much so the star doesn't include swimming. To summarize, if you use the gym mainly for lifting, you can go and get work done but don't expect too much more. My star might be biased cuz I've seen one of the best. But it's good for those who never have seen better because they won't have as much disappointment as I have.

I'm at Rutgers year round as a graduate student working on Busch Campus. When I have time to work…read moreon my fitness, it's usually at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center. This building is kind of strangely built. They have the main door to the gym all the way around the opposite side of the building from the parking lot. This is really annoying when it's rainy or cold or snowy and you have to walk around the needlessly long poorly designed path. The parking lot itself is way too tiny, especially when they open the gym up to high school swim meets and other special events. The way it's designed is also poor, since the positioning of the isles creates a bunch of blind turns. I've seen a few accidents here over the past few years. Once you're inside, they also insist on swiping your RUID badge when you walk in, which can get irritating. They have an Olympic sized pool which looks pretty nice. The general gym weight equipment area is way too small for the number of students/staff that are on this campus. They have rooms for spinning and racquetball as well. There are a bunch of classes you can take at the gym. They are quite cheap for Rutgers staff/students but it's sort of insulting that they aren't put into the tuition in the first place. Most of the classes are enjoyable though. I especially like the spin classes and RUFIT (which is kind of a mixed stations work out class). I just wish they had more classes later in the evening. The gym closes at 9pm and there are larger stretches of the year where it isn't open at all for breaks an things. The scheduling is inconsistent and always changing which can get confusing sometimes.

If you are a New York City resident, this is a great place to get in shape and exercise for very…read morereasonable prices. There is a basketball gym, indoor track above the gym, table tennis, racquetball courts, gym equipment and computers. There is also an ice skating rink and Olympic sized pool. Staff are kind and helpful. Many programs and scheduled activities. I will be 62 in January and all access will be $25/year. For younger members Gym plus pool $150 for the year. There is plenty of parking. Opens at 6am. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This Rec Center in Flushing is OKAY for the price and location. I like that the price of $150/year…read moreis not too bad. If you're between the ages of 18-24, you pay only $25/year which is a great deal. I paid $75 for 6 months, and that gives me access to both this Rec Center and the Aquatic Center in Flushing Meadows Park, as well as, any affiliated Rec Center in the 5 boroughs. Plenty of parking available on the street, or you have the option of parking in their lot but there's limited spaces there. And underneath the highway, there's parking available there as well. Inside, once you scan in at the front desk, there's 3 rooms: cardio, free weights and multi-purpose machines. Down the center hall, there's 2 well maintained racquetball courts, and past that is a children's play room and the main gymnasium for basketball and ping pong, as well as, an indoor track. Their racquetball courts cost $7/hour, and the price includes a ball and racket. However, they don't accept cash strangely enough, only credit/debit and check. All 3 rooms are have pretty much the same dimensions..and I pretty much feel the same way about all of them: too small, during busy hours you feel really congested in there. A few of the machines in the multi-purpose room were out-of-order. Treadmills and elliptical machines are not well spaced out. Plus there's no air circulation of any kind making the air in the room really dense. Legit almost feels like a sauna in all 3 rooms. Locker rooms and rest rooms seem well maintained and are relatively clean. There's plenty of decent sized lockers available. Overall, an OKAY Rec Center that can definitely use some improvements!

This place is so unprofessional I paid 10 bucks to play basketball and they kick us off saying 2…read moreout of the 3 courts were now rented out. The people who paid 10 dollars is now on 1 court with 40 people trying to play I asked for a refund because I didn't play and they told me there's nothing they can do. A lot of people come in there and don't pay and still get away with it and this how they treat people who do pay.

Poorly organized and managed. Well not managed because there are never managers available. Call in…read morethere's no manager there, go to the facility in person and there's no managers there. Managers say they'll get back to you and nothing. Nothing but young kids working here who don't have a manager. Scheduled games are constantly being changed last minute. Extremely inconsiderate. Our team requested no 11pm games and then when we questioned why we received another bye week the manager spitefully replied it's 11pm or a bye week. We received a second bye week because the manager wanted to play catch up in one of the men's leagues because they're behind, now putting the women's league behind. The men already have leagues Monday-Wednesday, Over 35 league on Friday evenings and then Saturdays and Sundays. Women's league is only on Thursdays so not sure why we have to sacrifice our PAID playing time for another league. This facility has kept no promises they made. "We will make sure leagues are fair" but the D3 league has been D1 level. They've tried getting rid of the women's league because "it doesn't bring that much money in." Maybe as a manager you should do a better job of recruiting teams to play here, as it is part of your job requirements. But it's hard to do your job when you're never at the actual facility. Must be nice to receive a salary and not actually work for it.