Minneapolis Puts Screws to Businesses Wrecked by Riots
In the aftermath of Black Lives Matter riots, Minneapolis still looks like a warzone. The same municipal bureaucrats that allowed the riots to happen continue to put the screws to the owners of ruined businesses by requiring them to prepay taxes on their ruined properties for the second half of 2020 before granting them a demolition permit.
Cleaning up so as to begin rebuilding is expensive enough for business owners. Via the StarTribune:
[N]early 100 properties in Minneapolis were destroyed or severely damaged in the riots following the death of George Floyd. The vast majority of those properties are either still standing or have been turned into ugly and often dangerous piles of rubble. …
Cleaning up that mess is expensive. Most property owners must pay $35,000 to $100,000 to clear their sites of debris, with larger tracts — such as strip shopping centers — costing as much as $400,000, according to property owners. That doesn’t include the money those owners must pay to get their permits.
Coming up with advance property taxes on top won’t be easy, considering that many relied on their destroyed businesses for income.
In return for taxes, citizens expect the government to protect their rights. Why should anyone have to pay the extravagant price of Big Government, only to receive anarchy?
It’s as if the leftists running Minneapolis do not want businesses to rebuild. They must prefer to lord it over a ruined slum, where there will be less need to worry about Republican challengers.
The city’s unhelpfulness affects public safety:
Basim Sabri, owner of Karmel Mall and other real estate on or near Lake Street, said he has filed three complaints with the city in recent weeks about safety hazards in the neighborhood.
“You can’t just allow a bunch of rubble and hazardous material to sit in the middle of Lake Street,” Sabri said.
But if the Minneapolis City Council cared about public safety, it wouldn’t be trying to abolish the police department.
Rebuilding in Minneapolis or any other city that sides with rioters (e.g., Seattle, Portland) may not be a sound investment.
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