The city of Minneapolis goes after convenience stores and a 50s-style drive-in restaurant

Woe is he who owns a convenience store in a poor neighborhood of Minneapolis. He must have brought in all the criminals that wander the nearby streets. The police do not want to be bothered by keeping tabs on all these people; so what better way to get rid of the problem than by closing down the places where they buy groceries, pop, or cigarettes. Combine this with a fanatical City Council member (the Ahab-like character) who feels driven to close down businesses that do not meet his quality standards and you have a formula for destroying the commercial infrastructure of the god-forsaken areas he represents. Then, too, there are neighborhood groups who were opposed to allowing a 50s-style fast-food, drive-in restaurant to open because it promoted unhealthy eating habits (hamburger consumption) and the outmoded automobile culture. Talk about regulatory barriers - The City of Minneapolis sent inspectors to evict the lunch crowd three days after its opening because the restaurant did not have a concrete wall separating its property from a neighbor’s. There was only a wooden fence. From this book, you get a flavor of why small businesses do not prosper in certain big cities and jobs become scarce.