Posted on 11/28/2014 1:17:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It will be a quiet Black Friday on Ferguson's West Florissant Avenue. The modest commercial strip that runs through the heart of the embattled city has been devastated by rioting and looting. Now, a haze of doubt hangs over many workers and merchants there who wonder whether their businesses can survive the terrible toll — and the fear of possible uprisings to come.
Some retailers, like Mohamad Yaacoub, have been slammed twice by violence. His store, Sam's Meat Market, was looted in August after unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. On Monday night, arsonists nearly burned that market to the ground.
"To be honest with you, I'm lost now," Yaacoub told NBC News after touring the charred shell that once was Sam's. The exterior brick walls are the only salvageable chunks. The roof is gone. "I'm not sure money-wise. Money-wise, it's just too hard.
"I had to borrow $700 to buy some wood, just to put the boards together to close up where (the rioters) came in from, to close the building. It's just too much, you know," added Yaacoub, who carries insurance coverage for fire damage but isn't certain when or how much he might be paid to begin a rebuild. A friend launched a fund to help pay for the market's restoration.
At a strip mall two doors down from the remnants of Sam's, looters smashed the glass at the Clip Appeal salon then hurled a Molotov cocktail inside. Two local men grabbed plastic water bottles and dashed inside the shop to try to douse the flames, said Leeanna Moore, a 22-year employee.
While Moore cheered those heroics, she admitted she hasn't decided if she will ever return to work at the salon, which also carries insurance.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I’m not convinced the people of Ferguson burnt those businesses down.
No??
Then they were complicit or indifferent either just as guilty.
Do you think that if outsiders entered my community raising hell and burning down anything that my presence would not be heard and felt by them?
Presently and future, things do not look good for Ferguson.
Here’s a win-win situation. The owners need to sellout to some Chinese national investors and hit the road to greener pastures.
Great opportunity for the Chinese to invest some extra Yuan and the current owners to take what they can get and run.
If the Chinese will invest in Detroit, why won’t they invest in Ferguson?
/s
Hah! Fruits and vegetables, are you kidding me? I work in an inner city and have seen community organizers pressure small retailers to bring in fruits and vegetables. Complete waste of effort. No one buys it.
Shortys, 40’s, rillos, flamin hots and hair extensions, now that's the ticket.
And the number. OMG don’t forget to play my number.
I’m in a conundrum about race. There’s certain people like Dr. Ben Carson. Condoleeza Rice, Thomas Sowell, Allen West, Justice Thomas, many Fox news contributors, etc. etc. who are just brilliant and competent and the best in what they do. I seriously seldon think of race when listening to these people. But the hoards of mayhem-oriented gangs that patrol our inner cities and Ferguson cause me to gag and to compare them to Nigerian or Mogadishu goon squads. I catch my self wondering if their is a genetic trigger for such feral behavior. I know there isn’t but it feeds into my deepest fears about race.
“sellout to Chinese nationals”
The inner city businesses I deal with in Cincinnati are 90+% Arab or West African immigrant owned and operated. These are generally good, hard working people trying to live the American dream. Unfortunately, they are in no less a savage situation than that of our ancestors who settled the wild west.
“Apparently, there are no grocery stores in Detroit”
YP lists 880 stores in their “grocery store” listing with Detroit city addresses.
I recognize grocery stores from several major chains, including Whole Foods, Sav-A-Lot, Foodtown, and Sprouts Farmers Markets. No doubt several of the other listings include full service grocery stores from regional chains that I don’t recognize.
Still, not seeing Safeway or any of the Kroger-family stores.
“grocery” can even apply to small gas stations that sell candy and soda.
Asbury Park still has a very long way to go.
From what they say Ferguson has changed demographics in the last decade.
3 problems
Single parent families
No jobs for these people
Have police more like the city they work.
Ferguson cops are still like 75% white while the city is 75% black
If it were reversed ?
Seriously.....how likely would it be to have a 75% black police force? Look at the illiteracy rate among black males, the drop out rate from high school, the inevitable failure rate for drug testing, and the high numbers of felons in this population.
Unrealistic, in my opinion, and an impossible goal for any city.
>> “
Seriously.....how likely would it be to have a 75% black police force?” <<
.
Ever been to Oakland?
.
““grocery” can even apply to small gas stations that sell candy and soda.”
Yep, but I what I saw listed were mostly small markets and specialty stores that sell meats, breads, etc. No doubt the bulk of the listings are bodegas and such, but there are also several, nationally branded full-line grocery stores in Detroit, i.e., it’s a complete myth that Detroit has no grocery stores.
Here’s the list:
http://www.yellowpages.com/detroit-mi/grocery-stores?page=1
Detroit has a predominantly black police force.
It isn’t the skin color of the cops that makes a difference.
People’s values do. And without the right values, good luck turning our urban wastelands around.
Yep. And lessons learned for the rest because this is only a start. It won’t take another twenty years like it did with South Central LA
I wouldn’t open a store anywhere near people like that. Dangerous, immature, racists
I don’t think it’s being made any more. I looked it up after seeing a flurry of references to “Champipple”.
Well, that’s it then. It was their only salvation.
There are other fortified wines and malt liquors that are on the banned list of “liberal” towns that could easily fit the bill.
“Apparently, there are no grocery stores in Detroit.”
I live in a rural/suburban area about 15 miles outside a southern city that is about 50/50 minority/white inside the city limits. All politics is racial which is why I moved into the county. Every discussion regarding government spending relates to how much will be spent disproportionately in the minority dominate section of town.
The latest cause of the community activists is complaining about minorities being relegated to a “food desert”. Apparently within a two mile radius of the “core” of the heavily minority area there are no grocery stores, only convenience stores and fast food outlets. The activists want the city to do something about the inability of minority residents in the core to have access to the same supermarkets on the majority white side of town. There is considerable talk about the need for “investment” funds from the government which in reality is just a call for more taxpayer money to be poured into the usual advocacy groups that do nothing to actually elevate the lives of the people living in the minority community.
I am amused by the drumbeat of complaints about the food desert since the closest grocery store to my rural home is over five miles away, yet somehow I am able to secure healthy food for my family, even though no city bus line runs through my neighborhood.
If black community activists truly wanted to help poor black communities they would focus efforts on raising capital from their wealthy white progressive benefactors to provide seed capital for black owned businesses in poor areas. These business would provide management opportunities for minority college graduates as well as opportunities for less educated urban poor to develop job skills. Successful businesses would be required to repay the startup loans so more new startups could be funded.
It is fascinating that Pakistanis, Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Hispanics can move into primarily black poor urban neighborhoods and with no taxpayer money build successful businesses in communities where the residents complain about the lack of opportunity. At the same time billions of dollars in taxpayer money poured into those same communities of a period of decades result in no improvement in ability of the residents to provide for themselves.
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