Mort Harris Fitness and Recreation Center — Local services in Detroit

If you live in the Midtown area, this is one of your few choices for a gym. It's generally never too busy and they have a decent mix of options, assuming the machine you want to use isn't broken. Aside from that, the facility is the result of years of neglect, deferred maintenance, and lack of oversight and actual management.

I understand the university wants to employ students, but it's common to see 5 or 6 "employees" at the front desk, all on their phones. They could be cleaning the 2 inch thick layer of dust that's been under the dumbbells for my entire four years I've gone here or investigating the strong mold smell that permeates throughout the basement level.

There's a student downstairs making sure the rules are followed. Their on their phone the entire time while novice gym goers missuse and break equipment that takes months to fix. Women have their own section, which is nice. But that doesn't stop other people from performing hip thrusts on the deadlift platform or decline bench. So feel free to deadlift wherever you find room.

Prior to COVID, they actually used to enforece their gym policies. I'd be the victim at times of "slamming" deadlifts too hard. At least then they actually enforced the rules. Now they simply took down those signs and the employees perform very little work.

Advice to management and WSU leadership. Clean house and hire fewer students and use their salary to go toward preventative maintenance, fixing the half dozen or so broken machines and cardio equipment, and replace aging and...

I was using the side of the squat rack to place my bench for hip thrusts against because the gym has no equipment or space for hip thrusts. Some woman cam up to me and rudely asked if she could use the squat rack and I explained to her my dilemma that I had nowhere else to go and that she'd hit me in the head, and apologized for the inconvenience. She stormed away and got an employee to come down with her. I explained to him the situation, but he didn't care and just wanted to not be bothered by the woman who couldn't wait, so I just said I'll leave. I never make complaints, but when I went to the front desk to explain, the same employee came back up and told me that he agreed with me about the situation, but that this specific patron is difficult. I then said "So she does this regularly?" and he shrugged and said "Yeah kinda." So I said that they should stand their ground more and left. I've never experienced someone at the gym not being okay with waiting, and have never had an employee have to come up to me. I was respectful the whole time and think the situation is just ridiculous. Will be joining a different gym that has better space and equipment, kinder patrons, and more...

The place is the dirtiest gym I've been to hands down. I go here because part of my tuition pays for it. That being said, I get great workouts. From morning to late afternoon, I don't have to wait long for equipment. If you go here, expect to get great workouts but using dirty equipment. I'm not even joking in the slightest. I like to deadlift a lot. After a couple sets my hands are covered in black grime. It's a shame because this place could be a lot better if they put some time into proper maintenance and some newer equipment. Overall, I love working out here, but the equipment needs to be...