My comrade EV Grieve first reported it back in late October, but I only just noticed that the Overthrow Gym over on Bleecker just west of Bowery — in the former headquarters Abbie Hoffman’s Yippies — has closed its doors for good. Check out EV Grieve’s story for the specifics (took incurred a lot of debt during COVID).
If I’m being honest, I can’t say I’m particularly broken up about it, as I was never really a big fan of the place, given their cloying attempts at establishing some sort of connection between the neighborhood’s punk history and … boxing, first by way of that Joey Ramone mural and later via the auspices of Punk Magazine’s John Holmstrom, although as I said in that post, who am I to begrudge John for making some bucks from his storied art at this late stage of proceedings?
I’m also not exactly heartbroken about the neighborhood losing yet another fitness facility, given the preponderance of them currently occupying multiple spots all over Broadway and Lafayette Streets. Sorry, but good riddance to that stupid bullshit, although who knows what sort of venture will take its place?
If you look in the upper left hand corner of the now-empty storefront, you can even see an invocation of Abbie Hoffman’s era, that being the Yipster Times (just above and to the right of the octopus). Below are some shots of how that space looked in the `90s.
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