Think this could be why there aren't more small business in town?

[Wesley Mouch]

One reason why small businesses dont want to set up shop in detroit is due to lack of building safety inspectots This causes soonto openo businesses to have to wait almost a half of year past the planned opening date waiting on the slow inspectors to give them tne greenlight to open. The starbucks in campus martius and Red Hook cafes are having a hard time getting prepared to open. Building and Safety inspectors are fickle in this town. They are hard on retailers who want
to open a business in detroit but they let these apartment buildings get away with not being up to code.

The crime issue on this thread is of course of paramount importance.

This post is spot on. If you want a vibrant city where commerce thrives, you not only have to control crime but you also have to do everything else right too. So everyone is right. The problem is crime, city permit process, schools, fire, trash, street lights, equality of opportunity, good roads, access to social safety net, health care, ordinance enforcement, decent insurance prices, good coffee shops and groceries, quality liquor stores, fair elections, inclusion and diversity, freedom to fail, culture of acceptance, good universities, fresh produce, and cheap dive bars, excellent pierogis, falafel, and pizza, nice public stadiums, parks, arenas, and opera houses, a vibrant alternative theatre scene, liberal policies towards gay unions, ... and well you get the idea.

Everything must be done right. Nothing left untouched. All things addressed -- none have to be perfect.

City permitting is indeed inconsistent. That's the problem when you have a combination of a decaying administrative bureaucracy combined with do-gooders who must pass laws to control everything. For the short-term, we'd be better off lightening up their duties and focusing on core issues. Don't sweat everything. But be good enough at everything