24 Hour Gyms -> vibrancy?

Planet Fitness is open 24/7 in a few locations around the Boston metro, I know in Malden and Chelsea it's open all night on the weekdays.

Then again, those wouldn't be in Boston proper...
 
Not everybody works a 9-5.

Plus, going to the gym "after work" for most people from 4-9 pm usually results in approximately 2 sets of actual lifting and about 4578439 instances of "bro, are you done with that bench yet?"


Sometimes, it's just better to go a little later.
 
I think the article should clarify that no public gyms are open past 10:30. Universities have gyms that could be used past those hours, of course for alumni and students only.
 
Not everybody works a 9-5.

Plus, going to the gym "after work" for most people from 4-9 pm usually results in approximately 2 sets of actual lifting and about 4578439 instances of "bro, are you done with that bench yet?"


Sometimes, it's just better to go a little later.

Well, yeah, after work is one thing, but I'm struggling with trying to quantify the use of a 24-hour gym from 2~8 am in a way that doesn't seem ridiculous to me.

Such as "It's 3 am. I'd better go lift some weights!" or people whose morning routine is wake up, eat breakfast, run a mile, get dressed and who would really rather run on a treadmill than run outside.
 
"Who's gonna use this" and "why can't they just go during normal hours" is the reason we have so few 24 hour things to begin with. If someone wants to open something 24 hours that doesn't bother anyone, let them. If no one goes, it'll close. No harm, no foul.
 
Boston prohibits gyms from being open after 10:30 pm? Wow!

This rivals the RKG anti-shadow law for provincialism. Someone please send a memo to Mayor Menino that it is 2012.
 
I could not be more behind this guy. He's said everything the provincial politicians, businessmen, and neighborhood activists who run this city (along with some unjustifiably boosterish forumers here, even) don't seem to get. Someone tell me where to send a check.
 
Gym hours were limited by the city when several in the Combat Zone were found out to be offering a different kind of exercise. There were also similar issues to the 'bath houses' in San Francisco.
 
Wait, people actually take advantage of 24-hour gyms?

...my mind is blown.

Commute -- there a quite a few "pick-up" hockey teams that I once knew of who had to practice at 3:00 AM to get rink time

I could imagine people who worked a later shift wanting to unwind with some weights
 
I generally have meetings from 7:00 until 9:00 at night. I then like to go for dinner and drinks until 11:00 or midnight. Ideally, I'd then go to the gym to burn off the booze and agnst of the day.

But not in Boston will I do that. Fucking Puritan ingrates. I'd pay double for a gym open until 2:00 A.M.
 
I generally have meetings from 7:00 until 9:00 at night. I then like to go for dinner and drinks until 11:00 or midnight. Ideally, I'd then go to the gym to burn off the booze and agnst of the day.

But not in Boston will I do that. Fucking Puritan ingrates. I'd pay double for a gym open until 2:00 A.M.



BBF -- I understand that there are some recreational places in Providence that the Secret Service certifies are very good at helping you unload some calories and relax all those tensed up muscles
 
^ This kind of snarky bullshit from older people who think nightlife means seedy vice is one of the reasons Boston doesn't have 24h amenities.

Earth to Boston old people: the neoliberalism you championed means we youngins have to be up at all hours working, whether because having a workforce that can accomplish everything 9-5 meant too many expensive, "redundant" employees or because globalization means 4am conference calls with Bangladesh. And while entrepreneurship can thrive under this system, but it also means accommodating the lifestyles of people who march to the beat of their own drummer. Under this economic regime, cities that get all this live and those that don't die.

A huge reason I live in NY is because I work ridiculous hours and the city is actually still equipped to take care of me at whatever ungodly time I actually leave the office. As a grad student in Boston, working late on a paper meant thinking ahead to stockpile groceries and whatnot in order not to go hungry. I knew it simply wouldn't do when I was even more busy/stressed late at night. Coming back to Boston now feels like a time zone shift because the city (even lively parts of Cambridge) falls asleep 2-4 hours earlier than Manhattan.
 
I go to the 24 hour "Family Fitness"
in Stoughton it used to be a golds now it independently owned.
But I still think the "Parent" owner is Gold's

nice place. I like it. I work 12Noon - 8PM and I have my kids in the morning so it works out best. I go after work.
 
Gym hours were limited by the city when several in the Combat Zone were found out to be offering a different kind of exercise. There were also similar issues to the 'bath houses' in San Francisco.

Why is it that whenever there is a perceived problem we regulate it out of existence rather than dealing with the actual infringements? Instead of banning happy hours why didn't we make drunk driving punishments stricter? Instead of closing bars down an hour earlier why don't we keep the T open later so that crowds don't linger outside the bars when they close (also reducing drunk driving incidents)? Why do we have to restrict good things instead of finding constructive solutions to their associated problems? Arg...
 
^ This kind of snarky bullshit from older people who think nightlife means seedy vice is one of the reasons Boston doesn't have 24h amenities.

Earth to Boston old people: the neoliberalism you championed means we youngins have to be up at all hours working, whether because having a workforce that can accomplish everything 9-5 meant too many expensive, "redundant" employees or because globalization means 4am conference calls with Bangladesh. And while entrepreneurship can thrive under this system, but it also means accommodating the lifestyles of people who march to the beat of their own drummer. Under this economic regime, cities that get all this live and those that don't die.

A huge reason I live in NY is because I work ridiculous hours and the city is actually still equipped to take care of me at whatever ungodly time I actually leave the office. As a grad student in Boston, working late on a paper meant thinking ahead to stockpile groceries and whatnot in order not to go hungry. I knew it simply wouldn't do when I was even more busy/stressed late at night. Coming back to Boston now feels like a time zone shift because the city (even lively parts of Cambridge) falls asleep 2-4 hours earlier than Manhattan.

CZ -- Us "from older people who think nightlife means seedy vice" -- actually happen to often be globally working while all the seedy nightlife vice is around and about

I can sit here in Lexington and on a given late evening be having a Skype with someone in Benguloru India or Almaty Kazahkstan or Singapore where their busines day starts when ours ends. I've had in the past year several days where I'm working with Europe (probably before you've recovered from your "seedy nighttimes" then the had a physical meeting with others from the East Coast then the teleconferenced with a partner in or project on West Coast and later talked, e-mailed and / or sykpe videoed with Asia where I would be arriving in the next 48 hours with some breaks in between. I've also had days that started here in Lexington, might have met with someone in the area in the morning or for dinner, flow n to Fraport and finally ended my day in Almaty Kazahkstan or Chandegarh India.

So -- Please -- give us older folks the benefit of the doubt when we try to put some of you young thangs and yur new fangled hype into a historical perspective

Remember that in Budapest in 1909 you could subscribe to the Opera -- through and with the sound delivered by the Budapest Phone company -- not all that different than Itunes or XFinity on Comcast

As for your grad student days -- you obviously didn't do much late at night - there was always someplace in Boston, Cambrdge or sometimes a burb -- where you could get most anything except power transistors in the middle of the night. Even in Taipei Singapore, Paris or London, San Jose -- let alone a technologically backward place such as Niu Amsterdam I've not been able to buy power transistors afer midnight -- Tokyo is the only excption to this global rule
 
Thanks for proving my point by making the exact same snarky observations I just called you out on.

Tell me where you go in Lexington for food if you work 16 hour days and don't have time/energy to cook or even enough grocery shopping?

Yes, there is "somewhere" to go in Cambridge after midnight -- the Harvard Sq. CVS, now the 24h grocery on Brattle, which just opened a few years ago and made a huge impact. The next best things after that were the Au Bon Pain, which closed at 2ish, and IHOP, which ended the night at 4. This is the nightlife equivalent of the few dim dots of light you see on North Korea on those bright maps of the world at night. People got robbed walking on the Mass Ave. edge of Cambridge Common because it was already deserted at 10pm on a weekday! I don't think it was much better, and often much worse, in other Boston area 'hoods. We all know when the bars legally close in MA, and I don't think people should have to seek out a literal speakeasy for a late night drink or snack.
 
Thanks for proving my point by making the exact same snarky observations I just called you out on.

Tell me where you go in Lexington for food if you work 16 hour days and don't have time/energy to cook or even enough grocery shopping?

Yes, there is "somewhere" to go in Cambridge after midnight -- the Harvard Sq. CVS, now the 24h grocery on Brattle, which just opened a few years ago and made a huge impact. The next best things after that were the Au Bon Pain, which closed at 2ish, and IHOP, which ended the night at 4. This is the nightlife equivalent of the few dim dots of light you see on North Korea on those bright maps of the world at night. People got robbed walking on the Mass Ave. edge of Cambridge Common because it was already deserted at 10pm on a weekday! I don't think it was much better, and often much worse, in other Boston area 'hoods. We all know when the bars legally close in MA, and I don't think people should have to seek out a literal speakeasy for a late night drink or snack.

Chinatown -- a place called the "Golden Gate" -- it served great food (and beer if you ordered 'Cold Tea") all night until Mondo's a place that used to be near Haymarket opened at 5:00 AM perhaps even a bit earlier. There always was Bova's bakery on Salem St. in North End. Beyond those there were several 24 hour DD's in Cambridge and beyond and Bickfords a place that served breakfast 24X7 along Montvale Ave in Woburn -- used to go there when I had a company in at Cummings Park in Woburn on Washington St.

But the basic answer - when I'm working late in my office -- I go down stairs open the fridge or the freezer and rummage until I find the piece de resistance -- snack, share some with the dog and go back upstairs and work some -- then repeat

As I said in another thread the things that I might find lacking at 3 AM - I usually can't get in any city after 10 PM except for Tokyo -- where there really is no difference between night and day
 

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