Motor City Madness...
Seems if you want to open a store in Detroit these days, you really are a "fool for the city." According to a story in the WSJ , retailers are fleeing the Motor City as if inspired by the V8 engine, fast and furious. Just four Starbucks remain within the city limits. (In my little Chicago suburb of 20,000, we have nearly that many 'Bucks to visit.) The affordable luxuries that bring happiness to so many appear beyond the reach of most Detroit residents. I went to Detroit once, about 15 years ago. One of my friends had grown up in Detroit (the city proper, not an affluent suburb on the ring of it) and her mother was moving out of the family house. Back then, in the early 1990s, it had sold, this little house in Detroit, for about $5,000. You couldn't get a Chrysler for that price in those days. I'm sure there were houses in Bloomfield Hills where you couldn't get a door for that price.... The house was on a block that had "changed" abo...