On the heels of a good news story about the city of Detroit, comes yet another not-so-good one (from Reason.com) ~
 

According to many small business owners in Detroit, the city’s overzealous code enforcement is making it increasing difficult to survive ~

Amidst a bankruptcy and a fast-dwindling population and tax base, the city has prioritized the task of ensuring that all businesses are in compliance with its codes and permitting. To accomplish this, Mayor David Bing announced in January that he’d assembled a task force to execute Operation Compliance.
 
Operation Compliance began with the stated goal of shutting down 20 businesses a week. 😯 Since its inception, Operation Compliance has resulted in the closure of 383 small businesses, with another 536 in the “process of compliance,” according to figures provided to Reason TV by city officials.
 
But business owners say that Operation Compliance unfairly targets small, struggling businesses in poor areas of town and that the city’s maze of regulations is nearly impossible to navigate, with permit fees that are excessive and damaging to businesses running on thin profit margins.

In the story I wrote about earlier, someone at city hall actually came to their senses and re-wrote an out-dated, anti-entrepreneurial ordinance, thus empowering Detroiters to profit from their own gardening labors. What a concept!
 
Where did that person or persons go? Why can’t we encourage a little prosperity and unshackle these small business owners in the same way?
 

 
In all levels of government across America, BIG BUREAUCRACY has become like a cancer on the body politic. And so – as with any cancer – we must find a way to destroy the disease before we lose the patient.

 
Related:
Detroit’s ‘Operation Compliance’ Shows the Dangers of Too Many Regulations