Hansen: Somehow, breaks never fell right way for YWCA

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Hard to believe in light of the recent decision to shut it down by the end of March, but it once had a strong pulse.

Though never a sparkling jewel, it was certainly a downtown attraction. People rushed through the doors all day.

Gym-bag toting executives descended from the office buildings to jog on the elevated track, swim in the Olympic-size pool

At its zenith in the early 1980s, the YWCA had 1,800 fitness members. By the time officials drained the pool and closed the fitness center in 2004, 250 remained.

Parents clogged the parking spaces dropping off and picking up kids from the child development center.

There were luncheons and seminars and classes of all kinds. There were always mountains of money worries, too. But at one time, 120 women - a full house - lived at Eighth Street and Grand Avenue. Compare that number with the 40 adult residents now.

The YWCA was never the Ritz, but it wasn't a flophouse, either. Going by Clark Kauffman's report in Thursday's Register, however, it was sinking steadily in that direction. It's pretty much a pit anymore.

I'm not trying to glamorize the good old days now that the YWCA about to close. That's an impossible job; the good old days weren't that good.

It's hard to remember a time when the YWCA was financially stable. Something was always going wrong.

If they weren't losing grant dollars, executive council members were resigning over differences with the director.

In the rare times when the YWCA had money to spend, the YWCA leaders fought bitterly about how to use it.

Repair the building? Pay bills? Sink money into training programs?

The facility has been a challenge and a drain. It's hard to believe a 40-year-old building can cause so many problems and require so much maintenance.

But when you fail to keep the place up, for whatever reason, you have problems.

As one a former fitness member once said, "You don't buy a car and not change the oil for the next 20 years."

In 1991, during a long-awaited remodeling of the child care center, workers found asbestos in the ceiling and floor. So officials moved 150 kids to the gym for eight weeks, closed the gym to the fitness members and wrote a check for $255,000 to remove the asbestos.

A few years later, they emptied the pool during the winter to make $42,000 in repairs, keeping swimmers away for 3months.

When the skywalk system stretched to 717 Grand Ave. in the early '90s, the YWCA got another bill.

And don't forget the new boiler that cost $90,000.

Questionable management aside, if they handed out awards for hard luck, the YWCA would have walked away with the big prize.

The national organization has grandiose goals. Eliminate racism? Sure, why not. Empower women? Great idea.

And while you're saving the world, please keep costs down, especially when the demand for social services is touching the sky.

It could be said that the board of directors ran the YWCA into the ground or let it slide. But outside events conspired mightily to make it happen.

It seems counterintuitive, but the development boom of downtown Des Moines didn't help the YWCA, either.

When big companies expanded, they added fitness facilities and child care centers. So did some hotels.

Entrepreneurs watched the influx of new downtown workers residents and saw opportunity. Check the 24-hour gym in the Liberty Building. The YWCA never had a juice bar or tanning salon.

So what happens now? According to the scuttlebutt, some out-of-state developers want to fill the YWCA space with a hotel.

If true, there's an empty six-lane pool waiting for them in the basement.

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