Decatur to help businesses negotiate rent
April 7, 2009 at 10:59 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsDecatur Metro spots an interesting tidbit in the city’s publication. The hamlet he calls home is working with business owners to help them through the economic maelstrom.
We will be focusing our efforts and our marketing and advertising budget on business retention in the coming year. We are working with our local business owners to document current rental rates and contact landlords to negotiate rent concessions to help our local business owners survive.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
where were they when wordsmith’s needed them?
April 8th, 2009 at 11:04 am
What business (pardon the pun) does the city of Decatur have in negotiating others’ private contracts? Perhaps I should say, by what right? They should just butt out. Is this article implying that they will threaten to use their leverage (ie code enforcement, and taxing powers) to coerce landlords? That is the same as taking by force. Why don’t they just put a gun to the landlord’s head and save everyone a lot of time?
If the city were serious, they would provide economic incentives to such businesses or landlords, rather than this questionable arm-twisting.