On Monday, area residents and Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) gathered outside Esporta Fitness in Morgan Park at 11520 S. Marshfield Ave. for a rally to protest the gym’s upcoming closure.
“All you did was put up a sign on the door stating that you’re closing one month from now. So you guys did not consider the health of our seniors,” said Michael Brammer, a gym member, referring to Esporta Fitness. You did not consider the health of our youngsters. All you want to do is close the place, and that, to me, is an abomination.”
Hearing about the closure propelled Brammer and others to action. He said they’ve circulated a petition for about two weeks, urging members to sign, and they’ve gotten more than 1,000 signatures.
“This staple in our community brings adults and youth together for positive mentorship through exercise and camaraderie. The health club has far too many members who will be displaced to smaller clubs, causing overflow at peak times. Please do not close another positive institution in the African American community,” the petition reads.
Marsha Eglin, a Beverly resident and gym member, has also helped raise awareness about the closure. She suggested a community co-op model to keep the gym open.
“We are asking other investors to step up to the plate,” she said. We will make this [gym] community-run and community-owned.” She’s also the executive director of Impact Family Center, a human service organization dedicated to improving the lives of youth, children, and their families.
Earlier this month, Morgan Park Esporta Fitness members learned that the club would permanently close on April 1. Signs were placed outside the club’s doors, at the front desk, where members check in, and throughout the club.
It’s unclear why the club is closing at the moment. Esporta could not be reached for comment. Mosley said he and other community members have not been in communication about the closure with LA Fitness/Esporta. They found out it was closing because there were notices on the door.
“We refuse to sit idly by as essential community assets are stripped away, leaving behind a void in our hearts and lives,” Mosley said. “We refuse to accept a future where our health is compromised because of decisions made without considering our well-being. That is why we are here today to raise our voices and demand action.”
Following Monday’s rally, Mosley and community members presented a written letter and the petition to management at Esporta.
The Morgan Park Esporta Fitness opened as a new LA Fitness in 2011. In 2020, LA Fitness announced that it would launch its new Esporta Fitness model, meaning that select locations nationwide would be renamed Esporta Fitness.
There have also been rumors circulating that the club doesn’t have enough paying members to remain open. Brammer argued that couldn’t be the case because they’ve gotten more than 1,000 signatures for the petition.
“When I heard that it was closing, honestly, I was just like shocked because there are so many people who use it each day. The parking lot is always packed,” Shardonnay Hawthorne, a South Side native, told The TRiiBE on March 15. “I always have to park all the way down by the Dollar Tree.”
Hawthorne has been a gym member since 2018. Today, she exercises weekly at the Morgan Park Esporta.
Since the announcement, some gym members have expressed confusion and disappointment with the looming closure. Due to the closure, members are also concerned about potential overcrowding at other Esporta and LA Fitness locations and whether other locations have the necessary amenities and classes. Some also see this announcement as disruptive to the fitness routines and the communities they’ve built.
The written notices about the closure direct members to use the LA Fitness gym in Oak Lawn once the Morgan Park gym closes in April because it is the closest facility. The distance between each gym is about six miles or a 16-minute drive.
Esporta is located within Marshfield Plaza, which opened in 2010. It is a shopping center with retailers and restaurants such as Jewel Osco, Dollar Tree, Old Navy, Chili’s Grill & Bar, and more. Target was once a retail tenant at Marshfield Plaza but permanently closed in 2019.
There are four Esporta gyms in Chicago, including the Morgan Park location. The Morgan Park Esporta is located within the 21st Ward, which has also seen Walmart and the Chatham Theatre abruptly close.
Phillip Middlebrooks, an LA Fitness/ Esporta fitness instructor, sees the upcoming closure as disappointing and as a sign of the times. He has been an instructor at LA Fitness/Esporta since 2014 but was previously an instructor at Bally Total Fitness beginning in 1998. In a deal valued at about $153 million, LA Fitness bought 171 Bally clubs in 2011. There were 23 Bally’s clubs in Chicago.
Due to state-ordered lockdowns, gyms were closed for much of the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, and when the Morgan Park Esporta did reopen in the summer of 2020, the number of people attending classes drastically decreased, he said.
Middlebrooks is one of the more popular fitness instructors at LA Fitness/ Esporta gyms. Pre-COVID-19, his Wednesday night Kickbox cardio class, a martial arts and dance class, drew 75 people weekly to the Morgan Park gym, but now that number has dipped to about 45 to 50 people.
“During COVID-19, it definitely got ugly because we could only have maybe twelve people allowed in the room,” he explained. He added that during lockdown, people started working out at home, outdoors, or going to work out at smaller gyms.
The looming Morgan Park Esporta closure highlights what Black communities in Chicago have experienced far too often: corporations fulfilling a need in neighborhoods and then closing suddenly without much notice or an explanation to the community.
“Let us work out. That’s it. We’re not bothering anybody. We’re not harming anybody. We are a close-knit gym family that comes there to stay healthy. It’s such an inconvenience,” said Johnetta “Candy” Sturvivant, a longtime Morgan Park gym member.
She previously lived in Riverdale and moved to Melrose Park in 2020. So, she commutes more than an hour to the gym for evening group fitness classes taught by Middlebrooks.
Sturvivant also cited exercise as a way to improve mental and physical health and noted that the upcoming closure could impact people’s ability to maintain their health and wellness.
On average, the life expectancy for Black Chicagoans is nine years less than for non-white Chicagoans. Black Chicagoan residents live 71 years, while non-Black Chicagoans live 80 years, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. The diabetes-related death rate is 70 percent higher than non-Black people in the city.
In addition, Black people nationally are at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cancer and asthma. Healthcare providers often present exercise as a preventive measure to combat those conditions.
The Morgan Park Esporta location is also convenient, especially for South Siders and people living in the South Suburbs, because it is adjacent to the I-57 interstate.
“I have friends that live five minutes away from the gym, and sometimes they walk. They’re just really upset about it,” said South Sider Laverne Magee. Magee is a retiree and senior citizen who commutes to Morgan Park from the Burnside neighborhood Monday through Friday.
She added that some of her friends are considering getting gym memberships at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, about a mile from the Morgan Park Esporta. Magee has been working out consistently since 2012. She arrives at the gym at 5:00 a.m. and completes water aerobics workouts. In addition, she attends evening group fitness classes with Middlebrooks on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Wednesday nights are lively at the Morgan Park Esporta. Middlebrooks’ double-header fitness classes, Kickbox Cardio and Bodyworks Plus Abs classes, a water aerobics and cycling class happen simultaneously in the group fitness classrooms and the swimming pool, as other people exercise on the gym’s main floor.
Rocelle Cyrus, a Beverly resident, also regularly attends Middlebrooks classes; she and other members are concerned that his classes will be displaced elsewhere in gyms that aren’t large enough for the participants he draws to his classes weekly.
Cyrus said she was told his Wednesday and Thursday night classes will likely be moved to LA Fitness locations in Hyde Park and Tinley Park.
“It’s just a cruel inconvenience,” she said, referring to classes moving to the Hyde Park location.
Parking is challenging in Hyde Park, Cyrus added. Hyde Park’s LA Fitness is located at 5224 S. Lake Park Avenue, and the space is much smaller than the Morgan Park Esporta.
“I’m not happy about that. But I won’t lie. I know I will be committed to Phil at least a couple of days a week,” she continued.
Middlebrooks also teaches weekend classes at the LA Fitness and Esporta gyms in Oak Lawn.
Cyrus said Middlebrooks is invested in ensuring that participants get a good workout, and she appreciates the intensity and the music, typically the Chicago house music mixes from legendary Chicago DJs and producers such as Boolumaster, DJ Corey, Andre Hatchett, and more, that are played throughout each workout.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I am going to walk out of there having burned probably about 500 calories in one class, so I know I’m gonna get what I came there for when I work out with him,” she explained.
Cyrus, Magee, and other members of the Morgan Park Esporta told The TRiiBE they spoke fondly about the people they’ve met while working out who’ve become an extension of their family. They say this community was formed within the gym’s walls but has expanded outside the gym over time.
“We have a birthday club in the gym. It’s about 15 of us, and every month, we go out to celebrate birthdays,” Magee said. “The birthday girl gets to go wherever they want to go. It’s about $50 dollars monthly, and we pay for the birthday girl’s dinner. I really like that.”
The relationships they’ve forged also serve as a level of accountability to stay consistent with their workouts.
“Working has become an integral part of my day-to-day makeup, and when I’m not able to do it, if I have an injury or I’m sick, or I’m traveling for work, I truly miss my community,” Cyrus explained.
“I miss being able to be at the gym. When I come back, people hold me accountable, and they’re like, where have you been? That sense of camaraderie has really helped me.”
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