This inevitability could be seen coming a mile away after rioters and looters basically destroyed the city of Minneapolis in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Businesses that were torched by rioters are beginning to choose not to reopen their businesses in their original cities.
A manufacturing company in Minneapolis plans to leave the city after their plant was set ablaze by rioters. The owner of 7-Sigma Inc. Kris Wyrobek spoke to The Star Tribune and blasted the city because of their lack of action in aiding businesses that were affected by the riots and looting.
“They don’t care about my business,” Wyrobek said. “They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.”
Wyrobek also told The Tribune that there were first responder vehicles in the area, but they didn’t help out at all.
“The fire engine was just sitting there,” Wyrobek continued, “but they wouldn’t do anything.”
The thing is, if you own a business and the city that you do business in and pay taxes to doesn’t aid you at all in times of crisis, why would you want to continue to do business in said city? Just think about the level of damage Minneapolis experienced.
According to The Star Tribune:
The city’s first survey of property damage shows that nearly 1,000 commercial properties in Minneapolis were damaged during the riots, including 52 businesses that were completely destroyed and 30 other locations that sustained severe damage.
Owners and insurance experts estimate the costs of the damage could exceed $500 million. That would make the Twin Cities riots the second-costliest civil disturbance in U.S. history, trailing only those in Los Angeles in 1992, which were also sparked by racial tensions with police and had $1.4 billion in damages in today’s dollars.
That’s just the totals from one city. Imagine what the total dollar amount of damage is across the country. The numbers will most likely end up to be staggering.
H/T: National Review