Posted on 01/06/2016 5:24:24 AM PST by Kaslin
A few years ago, BET had a commentary titled "Where Are the Grocery Stores in Black Neighborhoods?" One wonders whether anyone thinks that the absence of supermarkets in predominantly black neighborhoods means that white merchants do not like dollars coming out of black hands. Racial discrimination cannot explain the absence of supermarkets in black communities.
Compare the operation of a supermarket in a low-crime neighborhood with that of one in a high-crime neighborhood. You will see differences in how they operate. Supermarkets in low-crime neighborhoods often have merchandise on display near entrances. They may have merchandise left unattended outside the store, such as plants and gardening material. Often these items are left out overnight. Supermarket managers' profit maximizing objective is to maximize merchandise turnover per square foot of leased space. The economic significance of being able to have merchandise located at entrances and outside is the supermarket manager can use all of the space he leases.
Supermarket operation differs in high-crime neighborhoods. Merchandise will not be left unattended outside the store -- and surely not overnight. Because of greater theft, the manager will not have products near entrances and exits. As a result, the manager cannot use all of the space that he leases. On top of this, it is not unusual to see a guard employed by the store.
Because supermarkets operate on a very lean profit margin, typically less than 2 percent, crime makes such a business unprofitable. The larger crime cost is borne by black residents, who must pay higher prices, receive inferior-quality goods at small mom and pop stores and/or bear the transportation cost of having to shop at suburban malls. Crime works as a tax on people who can least afford it.
Racial discrimination suits have been brought against pizza companies whose drivers either refuse to deliver pizzas to certain neighborhoods or require customers to come down to their car. In many instances, the pizza deliverymen are black people who are reluctant to deliver pizzas even in their own neighborhoods. For a law-abiding person, not to have deliveries on the same terms as everyone else is insulting, but who is to blame?
It is not just pizzas. Recently, Comcast notified a cable customer on the South Side of Chicago the company would not send out a technician because of the violent crime in the area. Delivery companies do not leave packages in high-crime neighborhoods when the customer is not home. The company must bear the costs of making return trips, or more likely, the customer has to bear the cost of going to pick up the package. Taxi drivers, as well as Uber and Lyft drivers, are reluctant to provide services to high-crime neighborhoods.
Crime and lack of respect for property rights impose another unappreciated cost. They lower the value of everything in the neighborhood. A house that is not even worth $50,000 might be worth many multiples of that after gentrification. Gentrification is a trend in some urban neighborhoods whereby higher-income people buy up property in poor repair and fix it up. This results in the displacement of lower-income families and small businesses. Before we call gentrification an exclusively racial phenomenon, many gentrifiers are black middle-class, educated people.
It is by no means flattering to law-abiding black people that "black" has become synonymous with "crime." Crime not only imposes high costs on blacks but also sours race relations. Whites are apprehensive of blacks, and blacks are offended by being subjects of that apprehension. That apprehension and offense are exhibited in many insulting ways to law-abiding blacks -- for example, jewelers keeping their displays locked and store clerks giving extra surveillance to black shoppers.
White people and police officers cannot fix this or other problems of the black community. If blacks do not fix them, they will not be fixed, at least in a pleasing way.
Going “Galt” in action...
Once again, Mr. WIlliams ‘gets’ it.
As always
Black crime is an issue BLM terrorists ignore.
They’re hugely supportive of black thugs who make black neighborhoods a hell on earth.
Cleaning up crime is not on their agenda. Apparently, they’re ok with blacks being terrorized and murdered by fellow blacks.
After all, black thugs have human rights; law-abiding blacks don’t. And its not black thugs that are the villain, its the cops who try to keep such neighborhoods safe.
Crime is the invisible tax that affects Black America but to BLM terrorists, it might as well not exist.
In short, not all Black Lives Matter when all is said and done.
Looted and burned down.
If you want to live in a Moochelle Obama “food desert,” rob and shoplift all the grocery stores in your neighborhood into bankruptcy.
crime is not the issue. maintaining the fiction of a black community is the issue.
if there is an admission that a criminal black subculture exists then the myth of a homogeneous or monolithic black community is shattered. to be viable as a political force there must be a monolithic community.
if the actual fact that there are numerous black subcultures that are unrelated except for skin color, the whole black community charade gets flushed
Saved for the next time “food desert” starts getting talked up by the usual suspects.
“crime...”
“if...”
“if...”
Try:
Crime...
If...
If...
If you wish to be respected on this forum - or anywhere in the adult world for that matter - you will surely benefit yourself by capitalizing the first letter of each and every sentence.
Happy new year!
rule of 65....
when I passed 65, I allowed my own rules
My experience in the retail trade is that employee theft is the number one issue.
In many cases the employees partner with outside thieves and plunder local stores in bad areas. In some cases the security guards themselves are in on the take.
The owners learn their lesson the hard way—and then close their doors.
No one in their right mind is going to open a business in a high crime neighborhood.
Its not just the safety aspect, you’re always in danger of being left with nothing should things go south.
People make rational decisions based on what feels good to them and makes them feel safe.
The only people who put up with crime-infested hellholes are those who can’t escape them.
Every one else who could afford to moved out when they could.
That last sentence of his is pregnant. It skipped a period.
Burned to the ground in the last riot.
My grandfather owned a grocery store on the edge of a black neighborhood in Indianapolis in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s and never had any problems.
But then, he always carried a revolver with him. And was well-known for doing so. He usually kept it in his hand - not in a holster......
If more blacks saw reality as Williams, Sowell, Star, and many other blacks do, there would be far less crime in the black community.
Sadly, the reality of most blacks is that of the Democratic party - which is not reality at all, but a lie.
bfl
The values then were different - there were intact families, the church was at the center of social life, people had respect for others and for property values.
None of that exists today. Values would have to change in Black America for it to have the quality of life it deserves. But then black people have to decide what their attitude is to themselves and the world around them.
That is not something White America can fix for them.
For sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.