Group Fitness Classes Resuming in NYC Despite Politics
In a wave of new easements on restrictions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo overrode Mayor Bill de Blasio who had nixed group classes.
Indoor group fitness classes can resume at 33 percent capacity in NYC starting on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a briefing about COVID-19 measures. The announcement immediately caused friction with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had banned the classes.
“On reopening, indoor fitness classes will be reopening that’s primarily in New York City on Monday, March 22,” Cuomo said on Wednesday. “Gyms were open, but indoor fitness classes were not open.”
As the city slowly eased restrictions in August, allowing gyms to reopen, de Blasio signed an executive order issued banning indoor fitness classes, leaving yoga, dance, barre, Pilates, CrossFit and other specialty fitness studios under constraints almost indistinguishable from the lockdown period. Due to its status as an early hotspot, the city has been more stringent than many areas in business regulations.
Some studios sued over the order. Earlier this week, fitness and dance studio owners protested outside City Hall, with a synchronized dance routine. They insisted they had been unfairly singled out, forced to continue the status quo of last spring, while other businesses were allowed to reopen with restrictions and considerations.
Cuomo, who also loosened dining restrictions and lifted curfews in some areas of the state, is apparently overriding local officials
Bill Neidhardt, press secretary for de Blasio, tweeted that “Cuomo is making public health decisions without any public health rationale. He’s clearly putting politics before the data and science.”
The indication is that Cuomo, disowned by his own party, is appeasing some people to distract from or alleviate pressure about a growing number of sexual harassment allegations and a scandal involving the questionable counting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. Neidhardt ended the tweet with a call for Cuomo to resign.
Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior health advisor, told the website the Gothamist that he’s concerned “people in close proximity breathing heavily and the likelihood that masks may fail because they get wet or because they come off of people.”
The industry of fitness spaces has suffered immensely since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Revenue plummeted in the U.S. by 58 percent in 2020 when compared to 2019, according to an analysis of payment processing from the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), leading to 17 percent of facilities closing permanently and more than one million employees losing their jobs.
IHRSA data showed that nationwide 19 percent of specialty fitness spaces, like those most impacted by the NYC ban on group fitness classes, closed permanently.
