First New Orleans fails as a US City, Detroit follows

SHOOT: Detroit and New Orleans are fascinating - if troubling - examples of urban decay. Beneath the fold James Bieri wonders how to tempt retail back to Detroit. The answer is simple: it is the end, for them, of all those businesses that spurted up during that temporary flux, known as globalisation. So Wal-Mart won't be returning, nor Car-Mart. Detroit must go back to local producers - grocers, butchers, bakers, candlestickmakers. It is the beginning of the cottage industry again. But don't worry, we're slowly following them down the same path. Multinationals, most of 'em, aren't going to survive this period of contraction. Online company's maybe. But small, local, effective, energy efficient, low cost company's are what's coming next. If you live in Detroit you might want to pursue organic farming...or whatever was the original industry there before autos. Because they're not coming back.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com DETROIT -- They call this the Motor City, but you have to leave town to buy a Chrysler or a Jeep. No national grocery chain operates a store here. A lack of outlets that sell fresh produce and meat has led the United Food and Commercial Workers union and a community group to think about building a grocery store of its own. One of the few remaining bookstores is the massive used-book outlet John K. King has operated out of an abandoned glove factory since 1983. But Mr. King is considering moving his operations to the suburbs. "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." The city's 22.8% unemployment rate is among the highest in the U.S.; 30% of residents are on food stamps.