CENSORED YELP REVIEW: "I was foolish but have a clear conscience." (Part One of a review of the downtown Seattle YMCA)

I was foolish but I have a clear conscience.

DON'T JOIN THE DOWNTOWN YMCA.  

It blames the victim, not the aggressor.

My immigrant parents who suffered so much discrimination would be sad that their child still has to struggle to be respected by others.

* * * * *

The person at the top sets the standards for those below.

The present director is unlike any I've encountered in 20+ years of being a member of the Y. 

FYI:  This young woman lies.  Not small ones.  Deliberate ones.

She used the pretext of an urgent need for a meeting to make these off-the-wall accusations and provoke me into getting upset.

The expletive I let slip was not pre-meditated, unlike the verbal thrashing I received.

At a meeting on July 9, 2015 she was concerned only with tearing into and nailing me with accusations and blame based on distortions and quarter-truths.  She was not sincerely interested in listening or give-and-take.

And that is the experience of the downtown Y that will remain with me.

* * * * *

A whistle-blower pays a price.

There is a lot of facade (not just that now there are walls of lockers on each floor).  And much fear.  And gossip.

I tried to put on a brave smile for a long time.

* * * * *

It is unsettling to agree to have a conversation with a person in their office who nonchalantly is chewing--in your face--a huge wad of gum.  

This is a sign of disrespect in my culture.  

I believe she discriminates based on people's physical appearance.

Never in my life had I been drilled so aggressively and rudely in my life--by someone who had no right to be speaking that way to me.  She dropped the everyday mask she puts for the world and was condescending and bullying.  This was from a person whose intellect and moral character I hold in low esteem.

During the past 2-1/2 years I have been swimming about 7-9 miles a week without incident.  The lifeguards will testify to that.  Yet Cynthia K. insisted, without providing corroboration, that I was causing problems.

She feigned indignation, as if my requests that staff fulfill their job requirements--namely, (1)  closing the pool at a designated time and not early, (2) waking up on time to open the pool on time in the morning, and (3) talking to members who refused to allow others to work in on machines on the 5th floor, per the posted guidelines--were egregious examples of the downtown Y's "bending backwards to accomodate my needs"!

At this Y there are members who hog machines for 10-15 minutes, sitting there and resting after doing a set.  Or they leave their towel on the seat and walk over to the other side of the room to chat with someone else or lift weights.   They explode at you when you politely ask if you can "work in one set while they're resting"!

No one dares to ask them if they can work in.

I believe I have been a responsible member of the YMCA and that others except Ms. Klever's close coterie, would agree with me.

The dishonesty she so crudely displayed had me shaking first with disbelief and shock and finally with outrage.

* * * * *

I've been a member of the downtown YMCA since 2002, so it is with regret that I am leaving.

People have been leaving the YMCA in droves since Cynthia came on board.

It is not just that it is trying to balance its books (the middle class fleeing over the past several years) by attracting a larger and larger group of people on financial aid whose behavior sometimes is disturbing.

It doesn't help that many of the people look as if they just recently got out of the county jail or some juvenile detention center.   This is not a charity to which I care to belong.

The downtown Y is silently ruled by the law of the jungle:   whoever is bigger, stronger, more aggressive, or has more friends prevails.

The truth be told, this Y does not have the will to fairly enforce its own rules.  It pretends to.

There are people in this world who are vulnerable to discrimination--and not always the ones most people would recognize--and this YMCA, in all its politically correct wisdom, does not protect them.

ABC's don't come here for good reasons:  They are excluded and in subtle ways discriminated against here.   If a bratty lifeguard tells them to REALLY scrub their body clean, Cynthia will get pissed off at the ABC for reporting the lifeguard. 

Cynthia's insensitivity towards age, race, and cultural differences is profound.

She is not illiterate.  However, she apparently doesn't know the meaning of "accost," "harrangue," "empathy," or "scruples."

On so many counts, this YMCA pays only lip service to values and only when it is convenient to do so.  I'd look at other YMCA's before going here.  Or other health clubs, period.

"Popularity, political correctness, expediency,"is the current modus operandi of this YMCA.

Deceit should not not a core YMCA value.   Nor hypocrisy.

When Cynthia Klever leaves, I do think there is a chance for this YMCA to move forward.  

The Y community deserves better.