> No one issued an edict saying "there shall be no more mom and pop stores downtown." In our case, here in Bloomington, IN, that's precisely what happened. The

> No one issued an edict saying "there shall be no more mom and pop stores downtown." In our case, here in Bloomington, IN, that's precisely what happened. The owners (primarily Indiana University Foundation) raised rents on the city square. They tripled rents. It's knocked 2 businesses right out. They couldn't relocate, because the previous locations were destroyed for "affordable housing for rich foreign students". Read that as rents hovering around $1500/mo. So what did those businesses do? They went out of business. Gone. But hey, we'll get more overly-expensive housing! > It sounds more like sour grapes from a city planner who resents the commercial taxes going to Baxter instead of Brainerd. Unfortunately, there's one main topic that dismisses this reasoning. 10 year abatements. I've seen the abatements come up again and again. It's a form of corporate welfare. Where's MY abatements? Where's the small business abatements? Where's the 'small guy' relief? Well, to put it bluntly, "We don't get no relief". Big business has this hand-wavey ambience that we somehow absolutely want them here, for perceived benefits. But what it amounts to is a shell game with corporate welfare, money exfiltrated out of the community, and a worthless husk in a few decades. > He mentions the sewer, water, and roads that were built to support the mall location It's regardless who initially paid for them. Those pipes are there, and will require significant upkeep to keep them in any sort of standard. And those business again, with abatements, aren't paying. And nobody's paying if the malls are dead and shuttered. Those pipes are what I would call a "Toxic Asset". And that's before discussing massive water quality issues we're seeing in small and midrange communities around the country. Flint's the worst, but happening in hundreds of areas.