Matt Dishman Community Center & Pool

Ugh. First of all, there is a $ 5 charge to enter. Everything on the internet said $ 3.
Second of all, the workout room is tiny, and claustrophobic. There is no wi-​fi and I hardly get cell reception.
Third of all, the women’s changing room is disgusting and dirty. If my naked foot had touched the floor, I’d get an infection.
The pool itself is not bad, the water is a great temperature and the lanes are a decent size. However, they have the high school swim team there are 730, so you get kicked out at that time. Even though no one warned me.
I MIGHT come back just for the pool, but definitely not for anything else.

I primarily swim, so…
When I was a lifeguard for the City of Portland, we always maintained our pools. I remember cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming. .. Dishman is always dirty (the men’s locker room, anyway), and the showers are usually cold. At any given time, there are shaving cream cans, used soap, grime, you name it, on counters, on the floor, etc.
That said, it’s right by my house, convenient, inexpensive, and I pay $ 30-​something for a monthly pass. I’ve been going there for the past few years to swim and sometimes lift weights. I’ve been training for open water swim races around the state; I’m used to having to wait for a spot to open up in a lap lane.
So, yesterday, I go to swim after the pool was closed for most of the weekend for a swim meet (frequently, staff will post little signs on the doors alerting visitors that the pool will be closed for special events, so if you miss these somehow, you might show up and not be able to swim at all. This has happened to me several times.)
I got there at 2:00, and the two lap lanes they had open were full – 9−12 people swimming at different speeds – super frustrating. I start swimming around, you know, like a kid, just swimming. In a pool. Crazy, right? There are probably 4 – 5 people in the deep end by the diving board.
Lifeguard #1: «Hey, just so you know, if you want to swim laps outside the lap lanes, we’re letting it slide today; just be careful of people jumping off the diving board.» No problem.
Lifeguard #2, about two minutes later: «Hey, if you want to swim laps, you should be in the lanes.» I explain to lifeguard #2 that I’m simply swimming, in a pool, because it’s an «open swim.» He walks away.
Lifeguard #3, about five minutes later: «Hey, if you want to swim laps, you need to be in the lap lanes.» At this point, I am maybe looking annoyed because THREE lifeguards have told me to stop swimming IN A POOL, within 12 minutes. I wasn’t even in the deep end at any point. Nowhere near the diving board. I was mostly just hanging out. Maybe I looked like I wanted to swim laps.
It’s not like they ever tell The Slowest Swimmer on the Planet, you know the one – floating on her back, barely moving – to please get out of the lane to float in the «open swim» area.
At 2:12, I left. As I got out, I heard another lap swimmer if they could add a lane. No chance.
In the locker room, a guy asks me if it’s crazy in the pool today, so I tell him what had just happened.
We both agree it’s time to find a new gym.
Caveat: I know the pool is not my private place to work out. I know there are families, kids, older folks, etc. and they all want to swim, too. I totally get it. But when lap swimmers outnumber people there to just hang out in the shallow part of the pool, maybe compromise and add another lane? Maybe toss another line perpendicular to the lane lines in the middle so that «lap swimmers» can at least swim half way down and back without fear of them swimming near the diving board?
And when 4 – 5 people are just hanging out at the front desk, staring at their phones, put them to work cleaning?

Dear MDCCP: I am such, a big, ((blushing)) fan. Big fan. I so appreciate the cleanliness of your pool and your seemingly followed Shower Before Swimming policy. It makes me muuuy happy to see the sun shining into the water from your big beautiful 1.5 walls of window. I am in awe over the attentiveness of your lifeguards, along with their drill rescues of dummies and their frequent scanning of the ((voice deepens)) bottom of the pool. I’m fond of your fair fees ($ 3.25-$ 4 per visit or $ 32.50 per month) for access to the pool, gym, weights, and a multitude of exercise classes. I especially like how I’ve encountered so many unique individuals in your facility in less than one month’s time. I’m realizing you have many other fans because sometimes there is not even one available space in your parking lot nor your pool lanes. Clearly, we all think you are great. So, if loving you means street parking and circle swimming, then bring it baby.

Best Zumba instructor in town! Tuesday Thursday 5:30; Saturday 9:30. We samba, merengue, salsa and a lil hip hop moves. You will not be disappointed. You’ll burn calories and have a blast!

Matt Dishman Community Center is a great NE Portland Community Center. It offers an indoor pool, weight room, exercise classes and community room available to be rented out. It’s a great place to work out with your friends or family!

My kids take swim lessons here in the winter months when our neighborhood pool is closed. It’s a nice pool, clean and warm. It is indoor so the chlorine can be a bit much once you come out into the fresh air and realize it is stuck in your nose for an hour and every time you take a drink of water it tastes like your drinking the pool lol. This is the price you pay for a visiting an indoor pool and has been as long as I can remember after a visit to an indoor pool. The staff here is nice and the instructors are great. Two of my personal favorites are Janice who is extremely patient with my exuberant daughter and Daniel who is fantastic with my son who has Aspergers and worked with him this summer at our local pool one on one, achieving success in leaps and bounds that no other instructor has been able to do so far. The prices are reasonable and if your in need of some assistance you can apply for a scholarship that will pay for some of the cost. Parking is a bit tricky because the parking lot is waaaay to small for the place so leave yourself a little bit of time to drive around and find a spot.

Dishman is the perfect no-​frills, community-​centered North Portland workout facility. You can’t beat the prices, and the vibe is perfectly unpretentious. It can be a bit chaotic at times, especially at the front desk area, but after a few times experiencing it it’s easy to navigate.
The 5-​star review applies especially to the class offerings– both cost and quality. Al Granville teaches the Wednesday 5:30pm boot camp, which is one of the toughest classes I’ve been to. I’ve seen people transform after going to that class consistently, which is very inspiring. You DONT need to pay $ 20 for a good, personal workout. Al at Dishmam will give it to you for ¼ that.
The boxing fitness classes offered are also top notch. Coaches Mike, JC and Teddy teach weekday classes for women and a Saturday morning co-​ed, advanced class. I’ve been taking the Saturday class for about a year, and am amazed at how much stronger I’ve become in that time. These coaches will get you fit while also teaching boxing strategy and philosophy. While I don’t plan on doing any contact boxing, It’s been phenomenal to get the training of someone that does. Oh, and did I mention these guys are hilarious?! They are. The most entertaining work out you’ll get in PDX, hands down.
All in all, I love Dishman, and I REALLY love the fitness class coaches there — especially Al, Mike and JC!

Finding a spot in the lot can be difficult sometimes.
Tried the women’s cardio boxing class, OMG it was a killer workout.
The pool is a crazy chaotic mass of kids in the summertime :(

Came here for the first time since my main pool was closed and this pool is very close to my house. Receptionist wasn’t friendly at all, I don’t think she smiled once the whole interaction I had with her.
Locker rooms were clean, but showers cold!
The pool was nice. Sufficient lap lanes at 5:30−6am; however, at 6am Mon, Wed, and Fri there is an «informal» masters team that takes up 2 lanes. If you’re in one of those lanes, too bad, cuz although those lanes aren’t reserved, you’ll get kicked out or run over.
Water temp was ok, a little on the hot side but not as warm as Mt. Scott or East Portland Comm Ctr.
I’ll continue to use this pool as my last resort pool, but I would prefer Mt. Hood Comm College or Parkrose even if the drive is a bit longer.

Great location for kids and family. I really had no idea about this location until I became pregnant. I took prenatal yoga, prenatal swimming and now to get back in shape after the baby I’m taking women’s boxing and zumba. This is a great community facility for very inexpensive rates. Check it out

My husband and I found this place yesterday. I am 6 months pregnant and needed to find a way to relieve the stress of baby weight. We went in the pool for just an hour and met several great people! Everyone from the staff to the guest are very inviting and all have a great sense of humor.

So, who was Matt Dishman? I’ll tell you.
Matt Dishman was the first African-​American Multnomah County sheriff. Back when it was still practically illegal to be black in Oregon. The Sheriff. The closest thing to Shaft you could find in this lily white town.
Think about that the next time you’re lifting weights or swimming laps, all for the drop-​in fee of $ 3.
Make the man proud.
[Yelp 30 Challenge: 19/​30]

dishman is my local portland parks and rec pool. and for a community center, it does community well. yes, its not the MAC or even 24 hour fitness, there are sometimes homeless people that use the showers, but they paid their money and i figure, community means community. the staff is super friendly and the facilities are pretty good. i am a swimmer and i’ve swum in pools all over the country, and for lap swimming, it works as well as any. i trained for an 11 mile long distance open water swim and did all my training at dishman and it served me well. additionally, the weight room is completely adequate. ive taken a few yoga classes here that werent amazing, but were completely fine (and admittedly, im not really into yoga). i hear the boxing classes are great and i have some students who take a lot of the other classes (cooking, poetry, boot camp) and give them rave reviews. i think as far as community centers go, this is top notch. if you want an athletic club with athletic club facilities and rules, this might not be your place, but if you’re looking for a really great place where they will greet you with a smile, provide you with pretty great facilities and wont put a huge dent in your pocket, dishmans the place. (also, a fun fact is that the lifeguards here are pretty much the best around. they do both live action and dummy drill rescues all the time. in fact, ive been «accidentally» rescued by one of the lifeguards – i was idiotically sitting on the bottom of the pool, something from my competitive swimming days i suppose and one of the guards jumped in and saved me. ive seen them rescue several swimmers (there are a lot of elderly swimmers there) and ive been nothing but impressed.

could give it four stars, but the price is great and the facilities are solid too. the downside is the crowd, but really, this is a fantastic place.

Nice for swimming. Seems like lap lanes are always open. There is a hot tub!!! The pool is clean and price is reasonable (4 bucks per swim). There is a punch card deal too! For diving/​deep water fans there is a diving board/​deep area. Overall a nice place!

Prior to visiting Dishman, I hadn’t been to a community pool for laps since I was, oh maybe 6 years old and learning how to swim. I think it’s pretty great there. $ 3 to swim a day, and the lap lanes usually aren’t too crowded. People are usually friendly about lane sharing. My friend got hit on in the hot tub, which I thought was pretty gross, but it generally feels like a pretty good spot to go.

I’ve been going to Dishman for over a decade. I started with mommy and me swim classes when my son was 2 or 3 and we both loved them. The older kids classes, as another reviewer noted, seemed too crowded, with too many groups in the small shallow part of the pool at once, all colliding, and chilly water. Now we mostly stick to open and play swims for the kids, but I take water aerobic classes and love the cast of characters in the water on any given day.
My son has been taking basketball with coach Thompson at Dishman for 4 years, and the man is a true inspiration– a wonderful role model who commands respect, teaches life skills as well as b-​ball skills, and keeps the kids laughing. I am so sad my son will be aging out of his classes this year! What a great mentor he has been.

I used the gym/​weight room here for a few months when I was between gyms. A single pass is $ 3 and I believe a 10 pass card is $ 27. You can’t really beat those prices. They have a fair amount of equipment for a solid workout:
5 or so treadmills
5 ellipticals
free weights/​benches
strength training machines
mats, fitness balls, etc.
I will warn you though, this place is SMALL and can really get CRAMPED (typical gym rush hour: 3:45pm-7:00pm).
If you’re an in and out type of person (which I am) it will meet your needs however, if you’re just kind of establishing your routine and don’t really want to feel rushed or crowded while on a machine, this may not be ideal.

This is a great place for a variety of classes and activities. My kids have taken tumbling and art classes that they loved.
We also tried a kids swimming class here and it was, well, adequate. There were probably 5 other classes going on at the same time so it was extremely loud and my daughter couldn’t hear her teacher. The teachers seemed to have varying degrees of interest in their classes and I think that would make the difference in how you experience the lessons. Oh and it isn’t very warm so my daughter shivered for the entire lesson, every time.
So we’re not going swimming there again but we will participate in other activities. The admin staff is always great and will help you find open classes of interest.

It’s not the newest or shiniest facility but, who cares, it meets the needs of it’s neighborhood. I came here for a yoga class, and I’ve also gone swimming here. It only costs a couple of bucks to swim (and the yoga class was excellent.) In general, I am so impressed with Portland’s Parks and Recreation department. There are little community centers like this in every neighborhood. If you are new to the area I think you should immediately call the parks and rec dept and get the booklet that describes the community centers and classes offered. There are so many great inexpensive classes offered.