Hey, there! Log in / Register
Group wants to grab the City that Always Sleeps by the shoulders and shake it awake
By adamg on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 7:42pm
BostInno interviews Greg Selkoe, CEO of Karmaloop and founder of something called the Future Boston Alliance, which wants to transform Boston into a city that doesn't roll up its sidewalks every night. Starting with gyms. Why doesn't Boston allow all-night gyms? And no, Boston Bowl doesn't count.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Once visited the Planet
Once visited the Planet Fitness in Abilene Tx at 1:00 am. Despite the long hours of the gym I wouldn't call Abilene a cool place.
Maybe a 24 hr gym is a necessary but not sufficient requirement of cool.
class warfare
Starting with gyms. Why doesn't Boston allow all-night gyms?
Because rich people don't work weird hours, by and large; the lowest rungs of society generally do. Rich people want poor people out of their neighborhoods, so one of the ways they do it: complain bitterly to their elected representatives when businesses want to stay open past hours when said poor people can do things, like shop for groceries. Or go for a workout.
not class warfare, just student warfare
I disagree completely that this is class warfare. Have you met any consultants or bankers lately? They work absurd hours, and I'm sure that some of them would make use of a 24-hour gym too. Besides, the small number of neighborhoods that are dense enough to support 24-hour gyms have very high rents, and so they're not likely to have many members of the "lowest rungs of society," anyway.
If there's any group that the wealthy residents of Boston neighborhoods try to keep out (or at least keep inside), it's students. And, to be fair, loud drunken students are capable of making a lot of ruckus. But, few of those students would be using 24-hour gyms anyway, since their schools have facilities. Plus, students going to a gym at 3am are pretty unlikely to be drunk and/or roaming in large packs while doing so.
In this case, Boston just needs to get over its Puritan self.
Boston
is a city big on healthcare, technology and higher education. All jobs that have large numbers of people working 2nd and even 3rd shifts. Hell, add finance in there (although overnight teams are small compared to their market hour operations)
My recollection
When the Boston sports club on Boylston Street proposed 24 hour operations, the neighborhood association had no problem with it and for some reason it was the licensing board that didn't allow it even though the Neighborhood Assn had no objection.
Why would people going to the gym for 24 hours bother anyone. We already have CVS open 24 hours, several convenience stores and the hotels are open 24 hours - this is pretty benign.
And it wasn't poor people expected to use the gyms - mainly it was explained that it would be jet-lagged hotel guests and others that have some kind of shift work.
"We already have CVS open 24
"We already have CVS open 24 hours, several convenience stores and the hotels are open 24 hours"
Remind me never to stay at any of those hotels.
Mostly CVS
But don't forget, this is the same city where the Mayor has prohibited CVSs from opening up their minute clinics.
OMG hotels
We can't allow 24-hour hotels... those would attract homeless people, obviously!
Isn't it obvious? They make
Isn't it obvious? They make everything in Boston illegal so that you have to grease the palms of the old boys in City Hall to get anything done.