Destructive Creation

You want to know why the city of Cincinnati wants to seize local businesses like Acropolis Chili on the grounds of eminent domain? Take a look at the one-year stock chart for the commercial broker CBRE, which has the redevelopment contract.

Sproing! Why support mom-and-pop businesses with a stake in the community when you can get behind a highly profitable international corporation that returns exceptional value to shareholders?

How will it benefit the neighborhood? Well, the new center will have a few jobs that pay slightly above minimum wage, a couple of management positions, and .... let's see ... maybe a building maintenance contract that could get picked up by a local provider. So get on the bus with cleaning supplies!

For CBRE it could be any other commercial district in any other city. It's a turn-key operation made unique only by virtue of the fact that retailers should market to the college demographic. (Hey kids, need a cell phone that can play MP3s?)

Don't get distracted by the idea that development should serve the interests of local citizens. What are you, some kind of wild-eyed communist, talking about 'the man'?