A few weeks ago a sign appeared on the wall of the stretching area at the gym where I exercise -- if you can call it exercise -- a few times each week. It warned that if you lean on the wall, you just might fall through. That's because changes were in the works.
Today, those changes became apparent at Anytime Fitness in the Kenilworth Building, 2170 N. Farwell Ave. The aforementioned wall is gone, opening into a new space to the north that hosts the free weights and will soon have more equipment.
The stretching area has moved to the south end of the gym where the free weights once were (see photo above).
The gym is one of the nicest I've used -- despite the fact that it doesn't have a steam room or sauna, both of which I'd love -- because it's relatively small, pretty darn quiet and everyone in there -- the clientele looks mostly like college students, presumably drawing from the UWM dorm upstairs -- seems serious about exercising and getting out. It's not a social center, even though the vibe is friendly.
Manager Beckie Szmania says a few other changes are in the works, too.
"Our expansion should be done by the end of January," she notes. "The addition will bring us to 5,300 square feet! We'll expand our warm-up / stretching area, add some more cardio machines, and a bigger locker area."
It's a good sign, that while the economy is crumbling, one small East Side business is drawing enough new customers that it can continue to grow.
And now I have more room to stretch, too. Everyone wins.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
