Early in the summer, we reported the imminent opening of Ludlow Fitness in the heart of the Lower East Side. LES residents were peppered with flyers offering discounted memberships and anyone walking past the corner of Ludlow and Delancey Streets was met with sales pitches from the card tables set up in front of the future site of the gym.

Was a beefier, sculpted and cardiovascularly advanced Lower East Side in our future? Apparently not so.

i was walking by the proposed site of ludlow fitness when i noticed a new double-decker duane reade had oppened up instead. excellent. now i can load up on candy and syringes instead of taking pilates.


We can confirm this, in fact. The newer, badder Duane Reader is just across the street from the current, modest Duane Reade. Hipsters prefer to stay rail thin and subsist on a steady diet of Sparks and cocaine, thank you very much.

So, did anyone shell out for a Ludlow Fitness membership? Were your credit cards charged? If so, did you get your money back?

Correction: It appears that we were incredibly shoddy in our reporting, and Ludlow Fitness is still on track to open above the bigger, badder Duane Reade. In fact, the gym website has reprinted a Metro article from August, which reads in part:

The gym will take over the second floor of the new building, which will have roughly six floors of new apartments above it. On the first floor, Duane Reade is moving in. There's a Duane Reade across the street, but that building will be razed to make way for more luxury housing.

The Guest Editor regrets the error and his complete, utter dumbfuckery.

'Mom and pop' gym to open in trendy neighborhood [Metro/Ludlow Fitness]