From the Publisher: 'Wellness' Check: Burlington 

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• Courtesy Of Rob Swanson
• The former Greater Burlington YMCA building in downtown Burlington

For decades I was a regular at the Greater Burlington YMCA, daily navigating the mazelike hallways of the historic building at the corner of College and South Union streets to the windowless pool or workout room. The place had plenty of quirks but also a cozy charm. Many of the people I met in the locker room became good friends.

One perk that I will miss for as long as I have a body to work out: I was able to keep all of my toiletries on the premises in a wire basket assigned to me — a privilege for which longtime Y members waited years. In the time it took to wend my way from the outside door to the front desk, someone would have retrieved my basket of hair products from a long, narrow hallway. The place felt like home.

I started mourning its loss with the announcement of plans to construct a new facility up the road. Mine was the minority view, of course. Very few people had anything nice to say about the old building, which, among other failings, wasn't fully accessible to people in wheelchairs. The Y staff and board were a little more diplomatic about the marketing goals: The organization was seeking to serve a younger and more diverse clientele.

Getting older by the day, I took the closing hard and even attended a ceremony on the last day the familiar building was open. Listening to people's personal recollections made me cry. Fueled by nostalgia — I'd spent so many hours there over 35 years — I walked through the facility, taking pictures of the pool, the communal showers, the steam room and the sauna. Out of pity, someone found my basket and gave it to me as a keepsake.

And with that, my beloved group of Y friends, once so close, scattered across the health clubs of Chittenden County.

Then the pandemic hit.

The double whammy cost me; I belong to three health clubs now. And it reduced my fitness routine from a healthy downtown workout between shopping and home — with social benefits — to long, lonely walks and satisfying but solitary suburban swims.

I've since returned to the Y to use the machines in its gleaming new gym and this week discovered a time when it's not totally packed with practitioners: 8 a.m. on Sunday morning. At that hour, I even recognized some elder athletes from the former Y. Looking at you, Peter Burns, pedaling a recumbent bike.

All this change would be easier to embrace if going to the new digs on College Street didn't bring me past the former site, discarded like an old tennis shoe, and its attendant memories. Since the goodbye "party," the historic building has suffered one indignity after another, spiraling into disrepair. A faceless owner has come and gone without so much as sweeping up the debris on the sidewalk. The old brick is covered in graffiti. For months during the pandemic, a single guy pitched his camp — tarps and all — right outside the main entryway.

Will the new out-of-state entity that recently purchased the building finally turn this local landmark into something positive? Or at least clean it up so it doesn't look like a crime scene? Once a symbol of a healthy community, the building is now a glaring illustration of what ails Burlington: uncaring property owners, stalled development, rampant homelessness, unchecked vandalism and a growing sense that this beautiful small city has lost a step.