Are Businesses-Jobs And Residents Disappearing Because Of Growing Crime?

Article

I keep hearing about the growth in violence and property crime and businesses closing or moving. Obviously, this will have an impact on local economies. Considering the dire need for jobs and prosperity in high-crime communities, this couldn’t come at a worse time. Stores are closing or cutting their hours. Access to food or prescriptions becomes difficult if not impossible.

No business will invest in communities deemed dangerous. Residents will suffer or move. Few seem to care.

There is no national database on businesses and crime. We have no idea as to the statistical reality regarding businesses closing because of crime. We don’t have a firm grip as to the numbers moving or the precise reasons.

Yes, it’s all complicated by the impact of COVID, but per the Bureau of Justice Statistics, violence (and serious violence) began increasing in 2015, long before the introduction of COVID.

But if media reports are correct, the massive growth in violence and fear of crime plus other factors are having an impact as to people choosing where to shop or invest or live.

California Flash Mob Robbers Won’t Be Stopped, Will Spread, Says Ex-Chief

A former Philadelphia police commissioner predicted Friday that mass robbery crews would spread out across the country, given their success in a recent spate of California attacks on retailers. His prediction proved correct on Black Friday.

Charles Ramsey, the ex-Philadelphia commissioner, said there’s “no question” that the trend will occur elsewhere.

“This is something now that I really unfortunately think is going to spread,” Ramsey told CNN on Thursday. “Right now it’s in California, but it will spread, there’s no question about it,” Deadline.

Smash And Grab Robberies-Impact on Shopping-Employees-Violence

CNN suggests that the robberies will have an impact on retail shopping. Why would shoppers put themselves at risk?

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, speaking to CNBC a few days before the Twin Cities stores were hit, said that she worries the trend could drive workers out of the industry altogether, BizJournals.

A security guard has died after he was shot while he protected a San Francisco Bay Area television news crew covering a smash-and-grab theft, part of a rash of organized retail crime in the region, CBS News.

And true to Chief Ramsey’s predictions, smash and grab robberies are now happening throughout the country, Fox News.

Search “business or store closing and crime” and you will find multiple examples. They include:

Walgreens Closing Stores in Seattle

Walgreens has closed 17 of its stores due to rampant stealing, and CVS has called the city ‘one of the epicenters of organized retail crime’, The Independent

Millions Lost

The National Retail Federation doesn’t “know where to draw the line” in defining organized retail crime, Straczewski said. But the trade group has called its impact as “considerable,” costing retailers $703,320 per $1 billion in sales. Almost all the retailers polled by the trade group said they’d been hit by retail-theft “gangs” in the previous year. Top stolen items were designer clothes and handbags, infant formula, razors and laundry detergent, NPR.

Seattle-Loss Of 100 Businesses

Businesses are closing in the downtown Seattle area over ongoing concerns about crime and the attacks against police by the Seattle City Council. These departures come as well over 100 businesses have permanently shut down, citing the coronavirus pandemic and consistent problems with the city’s management of issues plaguing the area, MyNorthWest.

Loss Of Jobs-New York

Pandemic-induced lockdowns have led to the stunning decline of half a million jobs in New York in the last year. Nothing like those losses has occurred before in a single year. The city’s economic future is now clouded with uncertainty because of dramatic changes in work that have taken hold during the pandemic, most especially the many office jobs now being done remotely instead of in the city’s expensive business districts.

Thousands of city residents who worked in local businesses and supported them, meanwhile, have fled the city, and a Manhattan Institute poll last year found many more thinking about leaving. Along with those significant obstacles, New York faces another threat to its economic revival, one that it didn’t confront during the last two recessions—violent crime, which rose abruptly and significantly last year. Murders increased a shocking 42 percent, and shootings almost doubled to 1,531. More people were victims of shootings in the city than in any year since 2002, City Journal.

Closing Early-Shitting Down

Target and Walgreens are heightening security efforts in major cities across California amid increased theft and crime, new reports suggest. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento are among the cities with the most organized retail crime in the country, according to the California Retailer’s Association. As a result, stores have been closing early or permanently shuttering, Fox Business.

People Fleeing

It’s highly likely that people will start moving out of the big cities. Watching the footage of the aftermath of the carnage created in Minneapolis is both heartbreaking and frightening. Companies will consider relocating their office buildings into the suburbs. It will be seen as too dangerous to remain, Forbes.

“People Can’t Flee These US Cities Fast Enough” is the title of a recent article from Moneywise that mostly focuses on crime, not COVID.

Crimes committed over the past several days would’ve been unheard of a year ago in the quiet neighborhood that’s home to Lincoln Center and restaurants. A 40-year-old woman was randomly stabbed in the 72nd Street subway station at noon Thursday; a 56-year-old man was sucker-punched while dining outdoors with his wife Wednesday night; photos were posted online of a man masturbating on the steps of the New York Historical Society; and onlookers witnessed an apparent overdose in the aisle of a Duane Reade across the street from the Lucerne Hotel, NY Post.

There is data as to moving companies in NYC being booked solid, Daily Mail.

There is a question from the New York Times whether NYC is worth it partially based on crime, New York Times.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune writes about “exhausted” cities and crime, Star Tribune.

Another great migration is underway–Black Americans are leaving big cities for the suburbs, Globe and Mail.

Three major shocks now threaten to upend that urban renaissance: The coronavirus is preying on densely packed places; anger over policing is producing social unrest reminiscent of earlier eras; and strained city and state budgets could prolong their economic pain, Wall Street Journal.

Businesses are leaving cities because of police defunding, crime and riots: NewsBreak, Fox Business, Chicago Business, Yahoo Money

There are reports of Amazon partially moving out of Seattle partially because of protests and crime, New York Post.

Conclusions

Does anyone care about the plight of people in distressed communities when they no longer have places to shop? Who’s willing to create jobs in communities deemed dangerous? Media reports suggest that shoppers and employees are impacted by fear regardless of the setting. Without a vibrant commercial tax base, cities die.

At the time of this writing, we know is that people are moving out of cities. Definitive data as to numbers and the precise reasons why don’t exist. We do know that violent crime and fear are increasing, especially in urban areas per the FBI and Gallup.

It’s interesting that I live in a community in the Appalachians where house sales have been stagnant since the past recession and nice homes sat on the market for years and then, boom, houses here are selling like hotcakes. A friend’s house wasn’t up for sale but because she talked to an agent, she instantly had three offers and a bidding war. Buyer reports suggest people are leaving cities principally because of crime, riots and COVID.

Yes, there is a lack of data, but when the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both cite crime as a reason people are moving, there’s something to it. Same with the numerous articles citing businesses closing or moving.

The protests, riots, lootings, (two billion in insurance damages), and defunding of the police are scaring the hades out of people. They see a world that is no longer in their control. Firearms sales are setting records. Security products are exploding. People are moving to ensure the safety of their families. Businesses are closing or reducing hours for the same reasons.

But if residents of high crime communities are cut off from jobs and places to shop because of crime, it transcends difficulty to become a travesty.

See More