Mayor Doesn't Plan Return To Park Slope YMCA When Gym Reopens

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slopers won't be seeing a familiar mayoral motorcade outside the local YMCA anytime soon.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said this week he doesn't plan on making his usual 12-mile trip from Gracie Mansion to the Prospect Park YMCA when his favorite workout spot opens its doors again this month.

"It's not about comfort. It's just — I'm not planning to go back right now. Someday, someday, but not now," de Blasio said when asked Thursday if he planned to return to the gym during his daily City Hall briefing.

The hesitance is a shift for de Blasio, who in the past has been committed to his near-daily trips to the Park Slope YMCA despite ongoing criticism of the cross-borough drive to workout.

His final trip to the Y in March came just hours before Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced gyms would be shut down to stop the virus' spread.

The gym closure didn't stop the mayor's SUV trips to Brooklyn, though. He was chastised again for bringing his motorcade from Gracie Mansion to Park Slope in April for regular walks in Prospect Park.

"Seriously, you guys have a park. You live in the middle of a park," a heckler yelled during one of the trips. "You don't need to not essentially travel to Brooklyn."

Both the mayor's Prospect Park YMCA on Ninth Street and the Park Slope Armory YMCA on 15th Street are planning to open on Sept. 15.

Gyms were allowed to start reopening Wednesday for the first time since March, when coronavirus closures swept over the city.

The reopening will include new coronavirus precautions including applications, health inspections, a 33 percent capacity limit and mandatory mask wearing.