Long Beach mayor: It's "critical" gyms stick around

Long Beach, California has created a $5 million fund in order to dole out thousands of dollars in grants to gyms and other personal care businesses that are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Robert Garcia said at an Axios virtual event on Tuesday.

Why it matters: "It's critical that we support them. We don't want to lose this critical piece of our economy," Garcia said, adding that many gyms in the area are small businesses that have "been hardly hit by this pandemic."

What they're saying: "We know that for most of them, they had serious closures that occurred over the summer. Right now in Long Beach and in California, many remain closed and some are able to operate outside so that the state does allow outdoor training, of course [with] safety protocols in place and distancing," he said.

• "So this is an industry that's been hit very, very hard and in a place like Long Beach or Los Angeles or other places like San Francisco and others, you also have a diversity of folks that are running these operations."
• The fund will likely grow, Garcia said, and the city plans to provide grants from $25k to $40k "directly to these gyms so they can bridge those months they've been closed on the rent" or have money to reopen.

Watch the full event here.