Gold’s Gym Closes in Hawthorne

If cities want to drum up business in their communities, they need to learn to leave well enough alone.

Subsidies to special businesses do not improve commerce in a community.

Former Mayor Larry Guidi proposed an extensive loan to the company, but the conditions of the loan included that the gym had to hire forty out-of-work employees in the city. This economic micromanaging is unacceptable on any level. Private firms must be allowed to flourish according the dictates of the market and the services provided by the company. There is no value in imposing arbitrary considerations on a new business. That section of Hawthorne has suffered blight for a number of years, but where did the City Council form the idea that proffering federal monies would ensure that a new business would actually thrive there?
If cities in this current downturn really want to improve business, they need to lower tax burdens on prospective entrepreneurs. If they cannot lower the tax base, at least they need to reconsider some of the empty regulations which strangle investment. Special tax breaks or kickbacks from the state or the federal government only increase moral hazard, in which businesses like Gold’s Gym end up closing, mired in debt and unable to drum up sufficient commerce.