I knew someone who lived on Cook Avenue when Lakewood City Center was about to be built, and everyone was complaining about traffic problems before the ground was even broken. I heard the neighbors had a role in preventing the IHOP on Detroit Avenue from being open 24 hours. This seems extreme, though. I guess that's what we can expect from a City that razed a building on Dowd Avenue instead of letting my friend buy it, even though she said she'd make the very specific upgrades the City required.

My buddy now owns a vacant lot on Detroit that Taco Bell was supposed to move to. Besides the city going back on their word and crashing the deal, and cost him a lot of cash in the mean time. They put an ordnance in that Tbell would have to close its drive through at midnight. He even purchased the 2 residential properties behind to be a small buffer from the neighborhood. The city has also suggested that he do something else with his property that the car wash sits on, since it doesn't fit in with their vision of the new Detroit.

It is counterproductive. And when several businesses are pulling up stakes, all within a tight timeframe, claiming "reasons" that have nothing to do with their relationship with the City, no matter how gracious they try to be about it, it raises questions.