Carondelet Park Rec Complex — Attraction in St. Louis

TL;DR - filthy, disgusting, algae-infested pool. Don't waste your money. And don't bother with asking management to address concerns, because they'll just sit around and do nothing.

This only is to rate the outdoor aquatic center. I like to swim laps for exercise/cardio and try to get in 2000 yds per swim M-F. This is impossible to do in the outdoor pool lap lanes for several reasons:

1. RULES are not followed nor enforced by the lifeguards of staff. Cannot tell you the number of times children or other swimmers just pop into a lane disrupting a swim. And, the lifeguards most of the time will address it, but other times they just sit there vacuously staring off empty. Pool etiquette is posted but seems to be a part of the aesthetic and not requisite to follow.

2. LIFEGUARDS same as above. You, lifeguards, need to strictly enforce rules. They're there to prevent accidents. You should have been taught this in your training. For the couple months this summer season I swam laps, on different occasions I noticed one lifeguard was sleeping in her chair, some were on their phones, others just chatting and not paying attention. If you have time to chat, you have time to clean the pool. That leads me to my next point:

3. CLEANLINESS This is one of the filthiest pools I've ever been to. In fact, I'm surprised it wasn't closed down due to it not being vacuumed routinely over the course of ~3 months. On August 18th I stopped in hoping to get in my routine. The lap lanes were green with algae and people had scribbled marks into it in the deep end. Further, all season I asked many times several staff when they planned to vacuum the pool. Answers were: "we don't do that", "they (lifeguards) are supposed to", "we will", "we did just yesterday" [they most certainly did not], or "we will this evening", "all of the rain is causing it [to get dirty]". If you don't know how, hire a damn crew or get a robovac and throw it in overnight. How hard can it be? Furthermost, swimming laps I noticed sanitary products at the bottom, candy wrappers, millions of dead ants, goggles, napkins, candies, wrist bands, synthetic hair/eyelashes, and you name it. One is better off swimming in a stagnant lake infested with Naegleria fowleri than going to Carondelet Park Y's outdoor aquatic center.

Oh and let's not forget the bathroom/locker room situation. Dear god the horrific smells and filth. Bleach, people. It works, cleans, kills, deodorizes, and is relatively cheap.

Your staff needs to be trained better, held more accountable, and your management needs to lead/manage a little better, unless poor/mediocre is what you all are going for.

Note: Shrewsbury is multitudes cleaner, right outside the city limits, lifeguards enforce rules, and not too much...

I signed up my family at the Carondelet branch to enjoy the benefits of everyone getting healthy. My company has a corporate discount program so I thought I would try it out. My first impression wasn't great, there was an off smell and it is a little rough around the edges and showing its wear and tear. The gentleman who signed us up was very helpful and accommodated our senior citizen who was the impetus for joining. I have been working alot and unable to visit for a couple weeks, and very kindly received a call to see if everything was ok and noticed I hadn't visited like the rest of my family. I finally had a day off to visit and was treated very rudely upon entering. I was told to move because the front desk area is very busy, even though I stepped aside to try and figure out how to check in, download an app, get a tour, etc. This woman however had no problem chatting with a guest about her baby"s due date, I guess she was too busy to help me. She told me I had to sign some paperwork and I needed to go around. I moved to the side of the desk and still noone knew what I had to sign and why there was a note on my account that I pay for yet haven't benefited from for one minute. I asked about a towel, a locker, the app, etc., trying to figure out how to go about my first visit. I was told there aren't any towels since Covid, I was upset my partner didn't prepare me in advance of my visit as to what to bring and one of the desk attendants professed her disgust at my comment saying WOW! I told her I wasn't talking about her or anyone that works there. I was lost, confused and looking for assistance and that's how guests are treated! I chose to leave and can go to the gym provided by my employer, I don't need to be treated like a number so rudely,...

Today I was there. I saw a white dude was keep walking inside the pool area and upstairs complaining that someone has stole his shoes. For about an hour this guy was walking back and forth using f words, but no one was helping him. Then this guy took my shoes while I was inside steam room and I put my shoes behind the door. 2 minutes after he left with my shoes, one of the lady who was sitting close to my shoe said that the guy who lost his shoes took my sandals. I run bare foot outside to parking lot but I couldn't find him. I came back and reported to front desk and they called supervisor. The supervisor came and I told him about that guy who took my shoe. He said he will go and check the camera. For about 30 minutes I didn’t see the supervisor even though I gave him exact time when the guy took my shoes. I told front desk that I’m getting late because I came here during my lunch break. The front desk said, put my phone number next time when that guy comes, they will ask him to bring my shoes. That’s not the proper way. How you remember that guy? The proper way, is after recognizing him via camera check your system he has scanned his barcode and all his information is in your system including name, address, and phone number. Call him and give him warning that why he took someone’s shoes. This is a policy violation of ymca. He supposed to be banned for stealing someone’s shoes. I left YMCA barefoot. That’s so disgusting. When that guy came to staff and complained to supervisor, the supervisor should have created an incident report and should have received all his information. If they did this, easily the supervisor could call him to bring my shoes back. People won’t trust if their properties are not...