Joel wins one!

Welcome, Canandaiguans, to your fantastical new YMCA.
Well, it is pretty nice.
And it’s still downtown, not far out along Eastern Blvd.
They replaced their pool, and significantly expanded.
I’ve been a member almost three years, and only use their exercise gym; a struggle to get back in shape despite advancing age.
I don’t play basketball, racquetball, or swim.
A while ago they significantly reconfigured their exercise gym, and installed new equipment.
Gone were the old Nautilus machines; replaced by a new Cybex® strength-training circuit.
They still have weight-training, but no longer in its own room.
They also have old cardio machines; treadmills, step-climbers, ellipticals, and bicycle-trainers.
But they added new cardio machines with video-terminals; watch the Woopster bellowing on “The View” while working out.
I had to give up on the treadmills. Ramped up enough to get my heart-rate up was killing my back. And it was hold on for dear life!
But they also installed new Precor “AMT” trainers, a semi-elliptical that gets my heart-rate up without killing me.
I’m usually there about three hours per visit, and burn about 1,000 calories
They were going to close their old locker rooms, which were a bit aged, and open new locker rooms.
This precipitated a firestorm. The previous locker rooms separated by age as well as sex; one for adults, and one for younger people and children. Total four.
Joel Freedman, a YMCA member, circulated a petition to keep the old locker rooms open, or at least separate facilities for adults.
But the “Y” stood fast. The old locker rooms weren’t handicap compliant, plus they needed the space.
So, I visit the “Y” about two weeks ago to work out. Old locker rooms closed; “please use new locker rooms.”
This was at least a month after the new pool opened. The new locker rooms were where the old pool was.
—A) Sauna? Who needs a sauna?
The new locker rooms are a sauna.
They sure aren’t on the HVAC the huge Atwater St. atrium is on.
—B) They seem quite a bit smaller than the old locker rooms, which were small, but overkill on locker quantity.
I never had trouble finding an open locker in the old locker rooms.
But —C) Visit YMCA yesterday (Monday, July 27, 2009) and go directly to new locker rooms.
Try at least 10 lockers before finding an empty one.
A guy came in, and I wished him “Good Luck.
All them lockers are occupied,” I said as he started banging doors.
He finally walked out; he had tried about 20 lockers.
None had actual locks on them; just dissheveled clothes piled at the bottom.
I bring along my own padlock.
Workout finished, I dressed back into street clothes, and noticed a paper sign on the door of the locker room as I walked out.
“We’re open to your suggestions,” it said. “We realize the new locker rooms are quite a bit smaller than we expected.
Meantime you can go back to using the old locker rooms until we get this resolved — unless you’re a pool-user. N.Y. state law requires that.”
WHOA! Freedman wins one!

• “Eastern Blvd.” is a large main highway out of Canandaigua to the east. Many big-box shopping facilities were built along Eastern Blvd. to get out of downtown; as was a new post-office. —It presumes continued auto use.
• The Canandaigua YMCA has a huge new entrance atrium on “Atwater St.,” a side-street.
• “Joel Freedman” is a local activist, retired from the Canandaigua Veterans Administration. He usually finds himself tilting at windmills.
• “HVAC” is heating-ventilation-air conditioning.