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

[Meddle]

DETROIT [[WXYZ) - 7 Action News has learned that an owner of a Detroit store has died after being hit over the head with a hand dolly at the store he owns.

According to police, the man ran into the Grocer Farm Market at 3435 Second Avenue and was followed by a group of four men. Police say the victim unsuccessfully tried to fight off the suspects with a knife.

Police say one of the four suspects then picked up the hand dolly and hit the victim in the head with it, and then the group fled the scene. He was pronounced dead on scene by medics.

Police are looking for four black males between the ages of 20 and 25, wearing all dark clothing.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detr...-by-hand-dolly

[mwilbert]

Of course crime inhibits the creation of small businesses in Detroit. Is there some further point here?

[313WX]

There's not much that can be done about that.

That type of criminal element has been festering so long in Detroit without anyone trying to do something to diminish it that's it's going to take a long time to get rid of it too.

[coracle]

Is this a trick question?

[Dan Wesson]

Of course crime inhibits the creation of small businesses in Detroit. Is there some further point here?

313WX

There's not much that can be done about that.

That type of criminal element has been festering so long in Detroit without anyone trying to do something to diminish it that's it's going to take a long time to get rid of it too.

coracle

Is this a trick question?

My My amazing how jaded we have become.

Another dog bites man story, nothing to see here, move along.

Where's the outrage? Man, we accept things much to much as Americans.

What would Mohammed do?

[313WX]

My My amazing how jaded we have become.

Another dog bites man story, nothing to see here, move along.

Where's the outrage? Man, we accept things much to much as Americans.

What would Mohammed do?

How do you prefer we react?

[gnome]

Last week both headlights went out on the bride's auto. We didn't notice until we were driving home from a restaurant and after the sun had set.

while cruising through a couple of towns we were alerted to the outage of the headlights. A seemingly endless parade of on-coming cars flicked their headlights off and on in a show of concern and alarm.

when we passed the border into another town, those 'alerts' from other drivers stopped.

Your task is to figure out which towns did what.

[Dan Wesson]

How do you prefer we react?

Damn good question.

Like most of my ideas it would be prefaced with, "If I were King...", but alas we live in a supposed democracy based on Common Law. Therefore the most efficient course of action will be politically incorrect.

So what is the least offensive course of action... Leave?

[313WX]

Damn good question.

Like most of my ideas it would be prefaced with, "If I were King...", but alas we live in a supposed democracy based on Common Law. Therefore the most efficient course of action will be politically incorrect.

So what is the least offensive course of action... Leave?

Well, that's what 1.2 Million Detroiters have already done and thousands continue to do every year.

[Meddle]

So what is the least offensive course of action... Leave?

3-400,000 over 10 years can't be wrong.

[animatedmartian]

Did everyone in this thread just overlook the fact that this "small business" was a liquor store? It's sad to see that someone died from this crime, but I've never seen any liquor store in Detroit bring any sort of positive effects to a neighborhood.

[313WX]

Did everyone in this thread just overlook the fact that this "small business" was a liquor store? It's sad to see that someone died from this crime, but I've never seen any liquor store in Detroit bring any sort of positive effects to a neighborhood.

Just because he owned a liquor store doesn't mean he deserved to die.

[animatedmartian]

Just because he owned a liquor store doesn't mean he deserved to die.

That is true. No one ever deserves to die especially to senseless violence. But liquor stores are pretty much crime magnets. This is not something that affects every small business in Detroit equally.

[wolverine]

Making it illegal for people to just stand around liquor or convenience stores would be a good start. We had that problem around an SRO building in our neighborhood where residents would loiter about nearby businesses. Cops finally started busting them and the problem went away. I realize the crime in this thread is more serious, but cracking down on minor offenses is a good start to fixing a bigger problem. I always see folks standing around liquor stores and you later find online that those spots are hotbeds to crime. I'm sure one can make a simple correlation here

[Johnnny5]

There's not much that can be done about that.

That type of criminal element has been festering so long in Detroit without anyone trying to do something to diminish it that's it's going to take a long time to get rid of it too.

I disagree. If this store owner had been carrying a pistol instead of a knife Detroit might be missing a couple scumbags instead of a small business owner.

[313WX]

Making it illegal for people to just stand around liquor or convenience stores would be a good start.

It is illegal.

But a city like Detroit doesn't have the resources to enforce it like so many of its other ordinances that are frequently violated.

[mwilbert]

My My amazing how jaded we have become.

Another dog bites man story, nothing to see here, move along.

Where's the outrage? Man, we accept things much to much as Americans.

What would Mohammed do?

If the thread had been titled "another senseless death" perhaps the reaction would have been different. But the thread was asking [[rhetorically, perhaps) about the effect on Detroit small business creation, not about the human aspect of this killing, so it isn't really surprising that is what people responded to.

[Hermod]

If the thread had been titled "another senseless death" perhaps the reaction would have been different. But the thread was asking [[rhetorically, perhaps) about the effect on Detroit small business creation, not about the human aspect of this killing, so it isn't really surprising that is what people responded to.

Certainly we can look for a call for "hand dolly control" and keep hand dollies out of the hands of criminals.

[mwilbert]

Hand dollies don't kill people. People kill people.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Crime inhibits business more outside of downtown. But the biggest obstacles to opening and successfully running a small business are:
1- taxes & fees [[problems with the former are obvious; with the latter, I think most fees for permits and licences should either be waved, or phased in over the first year of operation; even businesses that go on to become successful bleed money in their first year)
2- regulations [[I have consulted for a restaurant that was approved for occupancy and fully permitted & inspected; a year later they were required to invest $25K to comply with building codes; the codes had not changed in the interim; with the threat by the restaurant of legal action against the city, amount of needed changes was reduced)
3- lack of reasonably qualified people to staff a business [[during an open call hiring I did for a restaurant, 2 out of 3 applicants were deemed unqualified-before an interview- due to either inappropriate dress or inability to fill out an application fully and correctly. Small businesses can teach workers a lot of things; most don't have the time to teach basic life skills, such as: limit the cleavage you show at the interview, unless applying at a brothel).

[rex]

I wouldn't want to own a store in the city for so many reasons.

[stasu1213]

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.

[Detroitnerd]

Hi. I'm Frank Rizzo. From time to time, I post on here because something grinds my gears, you know?
But today I want to spread the good news. I want to talk about how my community is better than Detroit.
You see, there is a city called Detroit. I live somewhat north of it. Detroit is literally the worst place on earth. I mean, there are literally skeletons on fire shooting AK-47s all over the place, and muggers start sticking to your car as soon as you enter city limits. It's a hellhole. Or so I see on the evening news. Honestly, I haven't gone into that shithole for years. Why would I? I won't even go to the new ballpark. Too scary. That place is awful.
Now, the reason that I love my life here in my suburban community so much is that it's not like Detroit at all. Call the cops and they arrive right away. Call the Fire Department and the engine rushes down your street in moments. What's more, there's hardly any reason to call them. The crime is so low that the cops spend most of their time on traffic tickets and making collision reports, right? The schools are much better than in Detroit. And it's populated with a better class of people than Detroit. It's amazing just how non-Detroit my community is. All my neighbors understand this and we all congratulate each other every day, compared to that city to the south where the CHUDS come out at night.
I did run into one problem. I had my cousin come out to visit. He lives in Philadelphia. He said that my neighborhood was boring and that the people here were close-minded. I mean, that guy had some nerve. I drove him down the main drag in my neighborhood, pointing out all the safe business owners selling tires, doing brakes and alignments, effective $10 car washes, hardware superstores, inexpensive diners and beautiful seven-lane intersections. I pointed out that none of the buildings were burned out, and how everybody obeyed the traffic lights, and how this wasn't like Detroit at all. He just sighed, like he didn't care. He doesn't understand that we can't have art museums on every corner. We all gotta work for a living, you know? Really, I don't understand people like him.
Anyway, they're the exception. Most people understand that when you have a community that isn't like Detroit, it's enough to get people excited. You know, like, there's this baseline of service that we all need to really thrive. We need decent schools, good police, OK fire service and some infrastructure that isn't broken and people just love it. Because it's better than Detroit. All of us are better than Detroit. Except them. And that's enough for me, pal.
I'm Frank Rizzo. Thank you for your time.

[DetroitPlanner]

Hey Frank, is your cousin from Philly named Frank too?

This is only one of several incidents that happened this weekend. I chaulk it up to:

- The Lumpen Proletariat has awaken from hibernation;
- The Full Moon bringing out the crazies
- A last har-rah of the really bad seeds as the Police Chief has opened hunting season on the criminals.

[313WX]

Hi. I'm Frank Rizzo. From time to time, I post on here because something grinds my gears, you know?
But today I want to spread the good news. I want to talk about how my community is better than Detroit.
You see, there is a city called Detroit. I live somewhat north of it. Detroit is literally the worst place on earth. I mean, there are literally skeletons on fire shooting AK-47s all over the place, and muggers start sticking to your car as soon as you enter city limits. It's a hellhole. Or so I see on the evening news. Honestly, I haven't gone into that shithole for years. Why would I? I won't even go to the new ballpark. Too scary. That place is awful.
Now, the reason that I love my life here in my suburban community so much is that it's not like Detroit at all. Call the cops and they arrive right away. Call the Fire Department and the engine rushes down your street in moments. What's more, there's hardly any reason to call them. The crime is so low that the cops spend most of their time on traffic tickets and making collision reports, right? The schools are much better than in Detroit. And it's populated with a better class of people than Detroit. It's amazing just how non-Detroit my community is. All my neighbors understand this and we all congratulate each other every day, compared to that city to the south where the CHUDS come out at night.
I did run into one problem. I had my cousin come out to visit. He lives in Philadelphia. He said that my neighborhood was boring and that the people here were close-minded. I mean, that guy had some nerve. I drove him down the main drag in my neighborhood, pointing out all the safe business owners selling tires, doing brakes and alignments, effective $10 car washes, hardware superstores, inexpensive diners and beautiful seven-lane intersections. I pointed out that none of the buildings were burned out, and how everybody obeyed the traffic lights, and how this wasn't like Detroit at all. He just sighed, like he didn't care. He doesn't understand that we can't have art museums on every corner. We all gotta work for a living, you know? Really, I don't understand people like him.
Anyway, they're the exception. Most people understand that when you have a community that isn't like Detroit, it's enough to get people excited. You know, like, there's this baseline of service that we all need to really thrive. We need decent schools, good police, OK fire service and some infrastructure that isn't broken and people just love it. Because it's better than Detroit. All of us are better than Detroit. Except them. And that's enough for me, pal.
I'm Frank Rizzo. Thank you for your time.

Love it!!!!