The Corona Crisis Could Bring a New Era of Decline for American Core Cities
25th June 2020
Manufacturing company 7-Sigma made headlines when it decided to leave Minneapolis as a result of the company’s plant being burned by rioters. “They don’t care about my business,”7-Sigma owner Kris Wyrobek old the Star-Tribune. After more than 30 years in the city, the company isn’t staying, nor are any of the company’s fifty jobs.
But the costs of being victimized in protests is just one of many reasons homeowners and businesses may be realizing life and business in central cities has lost its luster. The ongoing threat of more business lockdowns, more riots, higher taxes, and failing schools may induce many Americans to flee, once again, to the suburbs as their parents or grandparents did.
People used to prefer living in cities because that’s where the jobs were. They are beginning to realize that the jobs they find there aren’t worth the other disadvantages. The stayed because they needed a job, any job. But once they’ve lost their job, the barrier to leaving is vastly reduced. “If I’m going to need to find a job anyway, might as well do it in a safer community.”
This is especially true for the small-time entrepreneurs who run the little bodegas and delicatessens and hole-in-the-wall shops that don’t take a lot of startup money and survive because they’re a lot of potential customers around. But when the local NAM thugs can come through and destroy your life’s investment without the police or politicians giving a shit, that changes the situation significantly.