A PureGym member who is legally blind and uses a cane says he was told Wednesday that his membership could be canceled under a policy that requires people using the accessibility door to make sure others aren't sneaking in behind them—as the new owner of the former Blink Fitness converts to an automated tube door system so that the gym can operate unstaffed overnight.
When writer and editor Jon Gingerich started to lose his vision in adulthood due to a rare retinal disease, he said he found that going to gym helped him manage the mental health impacts. He's been a member of Blink Fitness for eight years, and said he enjoyed going to the "amazing" gym across from Grand Central Terminal four times a week to do cardio and weights.
After Blink was taken over in a 2024 bankruptcy sale by private-equity-owned PureGym and the Grand Central location closed, Gingerich pivoted and started going to the Murray Hill outpost, several blocks farther away and two stories underground. When that gym introduced the much-maligned "pods" last fall—which require members to enter and exit via a tube-shaped vestibule after scanning a QR code—he was grateful that PureGym put him on a list that allows him to bypass the tubes and use an accessible door.
But last Wednesday, an incident at the gym forced him to consider ending his membership.