[Washington Examiner] In the aftermath of the Minneapolis riots, the region now risks falling into a perpetual cycle of economic blight similar to comparable urban areas previously scarred by urban mayhem.In the summer of 1967, violent riots erupted and lasted for five days in Detroit, between the city’s black residents and the local police department after law enforcement raided a bar on the city’s Near West Side. Detroit was still recovering from a previous race riot 24 years prior.
"It stands to reason that businesses will be far less likely to invest in areas where there's a fear of social unrest. That's presumably the biggest long-run negative effect, but there will be secondary negative effects such as higher insurance premiums for businesses that do remain, depressed home values for residential property, and things like that," economist Dan Mitchell told the Washington Examiner.
"None of that detracts from the concerns about police misbehavior, of course, but it underscores that the wrong reaction can mostly hurt the aggrieved community," Mitchell said.
The economic story to follow the riots in Minneapolis, prompted by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, has yet to be written. But according to the Star Tribune, dozens of major chain retailers, as well as small mom-and-pop stores, were either destroyed or looted.
And as the country continues to open up from the coronavirus pandemic, fewer local businesses are expected to return among urban blight.