The Obama administration's much touted jobs stimulus has had the opposite effect on local businesses in one area of Detroit's suburbs:
TELEGRAPH REPAIRS PUT BRAKE ON BUSINESS
Construction compounds the challenge of surviving slumping economy, owners say
BY JACLYN TROP | The Detroit News
Businesses from Southfield to Bloomfield Hills have watched sales plummet since reconstruction began on a 16-mile stretch of Tele graph Road in March, leading some shop owners to complain that the project is threatening their livelihoods.Businesses here... and elsewhere... have been scrambling to cover operating costs in this artificially-induced local depression... including using high-interest credit cards because banks have essentially frozen commercial lending. From The Economic Populist:
The state says it does what it can to lessen the economic impact and the inconvenience to motorists as roads are repaired. But driv ers still gripe about the traffic snarls. And mom-and-pop businesses, as well as national chain stores, complain that shoppers are avoiding the area at a time when they are already coping with one of the worst retail environments in decades.
The normally robust lunch business at Hogan’s Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills is off 50 percent, said owner Rick Bochenek. He and other local business owners hope the state can compensate them for lost business. [full story]
