I just read KHTS’ brief ”article” touting the city’s “injection” of $100,000 taxpayer dollars into Old Town Newhall merchants, when a thought crossed my mind.
Two years ago, a large amount of protesters visited City Hall to beg the City to save Newhall Hardware. Those very same City Councilmembers and City Manager said nothing could be done, that there wasn’t any way for the City to save or even delay the shutdown of the beloved 60 year old hardware store. Even the City Attorney chimed in and made the same remarks.
The Newhall Hardware fans, dejected (they even printed Save Newhall Hardware t-shirts), left and Newhall Hardware is now but a dusty SCV memory.
Two years and a fancy-sounding “21 Point Economic Development Plan” later, and we don’t even blink an eye at throwing $100,000 to Newhall businesses so they can buy things like CDs, Prepaid phone cards, cell phones, and sinks.
All this from a community who showed up en masse last year at the Tea Party rally to protest the bailouts, waste, fraud and abuse! It’s absurd.
Who can be proud of this program? Is this “injection” of cash even saving a single job? $100k to Newhall Hardware to keep it open for awhile longer might have been worth it, but this?
Can I get a grant to help me remodel my kitchen to have bigger and better dinner parties?
This is just another example of how the City has gone overboard with becoming “business friendly”.
Time for change!
I too, was baffled by the things this money is being spent on. It makes me think that after having spent an outrageous amount of money buying properties (why wait for foreclosure, let’s offer top dollar!), re-doing streets, and streetscaping (what 3 times now?) they are bound and determined to have businesses in the area regardless of how much money they have to spend to keep them there.
Our city staff spends so much effort and money to try and show that they are worth their price (look, we won another award for doing our job, how ’bout that!) they will never admit that the Newhall Revitalization Plan was/is a huge boondoggle.
Jeff:
The owners of Newhall Hardware did not want to keep it open. That movement with the T-shirts was truly grass roots in that they did not even consult with the owner.
Plus, $100K is NEVER going to be the difference between a retail business staying open or not staying open.
Great points Tim.
Newhall Hardware failed because it became non-relevant in the hardware business just as buggy whips became non-elevant when autobiles came. As many I loved the quaint atmosphere of the store. It reminded me of Roscoe Hardware, in Sun Valley where I grew up, that had the most fascinating nut and bolt room. The bottom line is that people are not going to pass a Home Depot, OSH, Lowe’s and Do-it-center on their way to an old hardware store because it is quaint.
Businesses should survive and fail on their ability to provide goods and services that people want. The government at all levels should not be putting money into private industry in order to ‘save it’ or because ‘it is too big to fail’.
If I lived close to Newhall harware again (as I did in the ’80s), I would go there first (as I did before Home Depot existed… we just had the Do It center near K-mart). They had the glass doorknobs and skeleton key locks my ’20s-era house needed. I gladly paid a little more for pipe fittings and such because I also pocked up other stuff the “biggies” didn’t stock.
By the time hey closed, I lived too far away to make it practical. Yeah, it was tough for them, and I deeply regret the end of that store and really, that era of businesses.
Question for everyone.
How is this hypocritical?
The $100,000 came from the Stimulus Plan not the from the city budget? The City should be applauded for bring stimulus dollar into the Santa Clarita. I personally hope they bring more in and help get this area fixed up.
As far as Newhall Hardware, it sucks but ultimately the free market spoke. People went to Home Depot and Lowes, that happens it sucks but it is way of American life that we have willingly accepted.
What was truly outrageous was increasing the benefits package of the unionized city employees. The city council and city manager are out of touch with reality and this campaign cries out for a true conservative to serve as the rudder guiding this ship into the next decade.
Blazingmonk:
It is hypocritical because:
1. The money came from my pocket as well as yours!
2. If the money wasn’t available, would these businesses have been spending their own money on such foolishness – in other words, was there enough economic benefit to justify the investment?
3. How much of a vetting process was there to ensure the use of the funds was indeed geared to create jobs? Doesn’t look like too much.
4. There is no such thing as a free lunch!
So you prefer that all stimulus money stays out of SCV? The stimulus is happening only about 20%-30% has been distributed. I want lots more poured into this community. The other situation requires a Government institute to rescue a business AKA Bail it out.
The only prayer this place had was to make it a historical landmark
You are also making a lot of assumptions that no one knows.
Local businesses already get a huge amount of assistance, help, credits and funds from our local government. This is, after all, the BFF community when it comes to business.
I’d love to see the money here and spent here – but for things that are more worthwhile and longlasting – like civil works projects. Repave more of the streets, create turnouts for the bus’s so they don’t tie up traffic when they stop and wait on Soledad, build parking lots for folks who use commuter transit, invest in more conservation efforts, save some teaching jobs so classroom sizes can go back to where they were, hire more Sheriffs to deal with the drug and gang problems as well as the unsolved murders.
Is it the governments responsibility to bail out businesses? If so, then should they become owners and have input into the day to day decisions (GM) and get a share of profits (other than taxes). It is a road I hate to see us embark on.
A true capitalist approach would argue survival of the fittest. Good times should help offset bad times. Unfortunately, we all to often have owners and senior management taking significant amounts of free cash flow out and then leaving the company. The end result is a shell of a company that is highly leveraged where bankruptcy is the most viable option (Newhall Land and Farming).
^^ Exactly!
That $100k could have gone to building a new park, or more sidewalk bulbouts, bike lanes, road projects or a million other things we all use.
Instead it literally is going into business owner’s pockets, for their benefit alone.
Based on the homepage… it appears those are grants that can be applied for building improvements. Not just to go into the pockets of business owners.
I will be believe it free market once we get ride of the Fed… and quit quietly taxing everyone with inflation.
The proof will be in the pudding, so to speak, after each business uses their $5000 and we can hopefully get some quantitative data to see whether the boost helped each business or not. If it does help it will help us all in the long run. We could have just let Newhall keep going in the direction it has been heading for some time but if you’ve ever seen dryrot travel then you can imagine what would happen going south to north.
“We could have just let Newhall keep going in the direction it has been heading for some time but if you’ve ever seen dryrot travel then you can imagine what would happen going south to north.”
I’ve never argued against substantial civic investment in Newhall. Far from it! I support everything the City has done there for the last decade, from the train station to the community center to the streetscape, the library, the land purchase, and veteran’s plaza. More please! Let’s build it up and make it a great place.
The City has done great and they have set the bar really high, which is why I’m so disappointed to see them blow $100k on…well…crap.
Anyway, moving on.
Pingback: SCVTalk.com » Blog Archive » How do you solve a problem like Bob Kellar?