Joey's Notepad: Interesting things I don't have time to cover (i) – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

September 19, 2020
The owner of Odeon Fitness wrote Hamilton City Council this week asking them to expand the City’s mandatory masking bylaw to include indoor fitness facilities.
“We do intense, functional fitness/crossfit style workouts including cardio and weightlifting, and have found that all the members who take the masked indoor classes have been able to do the workouts, regardless of age, ability, or
fitness level, with their masks on”, Marnie Saskin writes on behalf of the business. “They have found the masks a discomfort rather than a hindrance, and say that it makes them feel more at ease since everyone is masked”.
This is an interesting angle to life during COVID, and this is not the only fitness facility in Hamilton to require masking.
Odeon Fitness is also asking the City to allow fitness businesses to operate outdoors, with physical distancing, if indoor activities are restricted due to another outbreak of COVID. There is a good potential story about this idea, and also a role for journalists to answer the questions about how we allocate our outdoor spaces. What would this entail, how would the City allocate space, and does the City charge for the space.
Like many businesses, Odeon is very concerned about surviving the winter, as they note in their closing line.
The full letter to Council below as an image: