Matt Dishman Community Center — Attraction in Portland

Great offerings and facility for the portland community however, the weight room needs some oversight. I’ve been working out here on and off for the last few years. Basic gym etiquette is sorely lacking there - most troublesome is that men regularly act in a disrespectful, intimidating manner to women. I’ve never experienced anything like this in the decades I’ve frequented gyms. It’s pretty shocking.

I’ll share an experience from just this afternoon - I went into the weight room and 2 of the three benches were being used. I asked a man who was on another station beside an open bench if he was using it. Without looking at me, he snapped, “yes.” No big deal. I went over to an empty tower to do another exercise. A man seated at another station about 10 feet away texting stopped me and said, “I’m on that machine.” He actually wasn’t on the machine, he actually was sitting at a totally different station texting someone on his phone. In response I said in my most respectful gym etiquette, “do you mind if I work in while you’re at that station?” He rolled his eyes, then asked what exercise I was going to be doing.

In the meantime, it had been over 10 minutes and the guy who I initially asked about using the bench (who was also not actively using it but also on another piece of equipment) still hadn’t been on the bench! Seriously? I went to go discuss the issue with someone in the office and on my way there, 2 women smiled at me and said, “this happens all the time.”

It does indeed and it’s a bunch of baloney. And I would argue that it not only makes women feel uncomfortable and disrespected but it also makes us feel a bit unsafe. By the way, I’ve never seen men do this to the other men working out there. If anything, men seem to engage with other men with more respect and proper gym etiquette.

In my opinion, there should be Rules posted that include stating the important of treating all gym members respectfully and other important gym etiquette, so that guys like the two today that want to hog multiple pieces of equipment (often like today that they’re not even on) and act in a dismissive and/ or disrespectful manner to women are informed that they’re not allowed to do that. In my opinion it would also be helpful to have a staff member available to help out when ‘issues’ like...

A great place for baby swim classes. I was looking for a pool to take my 7 month old to learn about swimming. We took a week long morning course. Even tho it was only 30min every morning the lessons were packed full of fun and informative activities for both parents and children. I liked that there were repeat activities everyday which helps make baby comfortable but also a new element to explore such as pool noodles one day, kick board another and life jackets another day. Lukas our lead instructor did an excellent job directing the activities, we were always able to hear him and he had good energy to keep everyone engaged, his co-instructor Kaylin was very sweet and did a wonderful job smiling and playing along with the babies to help them feel seen and included. The classes were well structured but also left a ton of flexibility for what the kiddos need. My baby has condition that makes her process things a little differently and we never felt awkward or singled out if she got overwhelmed or needed a minute to break away from the activity and just watch the water aerobics for a bit.

Matt Dishman may not be the fanciest of places, it might seem a little rough around the edges from the outside but after going there every day this week I really grew to love it. There's a very kind community surrounding this community center, people say good morning and hold the door for each other. We even made some friends in swim class we're looking forward to seeing again. There's a lot of different activities offered here and I'm excited to check those out in the future as well. Also people complain about parking but the lot is not too bad, plus there's some options around the neighborhood.

All in all a...

Been coming here ever since I moved to Portland about a year and a half ago and this place has always been great. The staff are super friendly and are always willing to help you to the best of their ability. I only come here to use the showers so I can't speak much of the rest of the facility but I can say that the showers are always clean and the water is almost always hot. They have a locker room type shower where it's just one big room with multiple shower heads or they have 2 private shower rooms with a sink and mirror and a toilet. I almost always use the private shower rooms. They ask you to please keep the shower room time to about 30 minutes because of other people needing to use the shower room which I feel is plenty of time to do whatever it is you need to do. The best part is it only costs 50 cents per visit so anybody can afford it. There is a dispenser with hair / body wash stuff but I always bring my own anyway. Theyre open til 8 pm so if your trying to get a shower in, you need to make sure your gonna be done by 8. Never had any issues in all the times I've been there and I always recommend it to people who are having trouble finding somewhere cheap to get cleaned up. Thank you Matt Dishman...