Unforeseen Consequence

Today, The Wall Street Journal ran an online story discussing an unforeseen consequence of the auto-crisis and recession in Detroit.
While it was widely predicted Detroit's residents and businesses would suffer from the collapse of General Motors Corporation, few imagined the rate businesses would exodus from the city.
Retailers like Starbucks and Borders have pulled most of their locations from the city. The United Food and Commercial Workers union is thinking of building a grocery store due to a lack of national grocery chains and businesses selling fresh meat and produce. Residents of the city are struggling to get common goods readily available to them a few months ago. Car dealers have also started trekking from the 11th largest city in the nation. From the story:

"The lack of retail is one of the biggest challenges the city faces," said James Bieri, president of Bieri Co., a Detroit-based real-estate brokerage. "Trying to understand how to get it to come back will be one of the most important keys to its resurgence - if it ever has one."

Andrew Grossman's article strays from the collapse of GM and examines the extent the corporation's influence kept other businesses rooted. The story also acts as an interesting allegory of one corporation's ability to bring one of the largest cities in America to its knees.

View the story here.

What do you think of the backlash from General Motors in Detroit? What unforseen consequences of the auto industry crisis have you reported on? Comment and let us know.

Crain launches its first business newspaper outside of the states

Crain Communication Inc. launched its first city business newspaper outside of the United States today, according to How-Do, a site that covers the media industry in the North West of England.

The weekly paper is called, Crain’s Manchester, a new venture that adds to the company's business publications in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. Crain’s claims the publication will be the first city business weekly of its kind in Western Europe, according to the story.

The paper's Web site, http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/, was also launched today.

To read the report click here.