Baltimore riots: 'They even took the ATM' – Pakistani shop owner may have lost $100,000 to looters

[Recursion]

224. Maybe, but Columbia Heights in DC took 40 years to get there

I remember back in the 90s half of the storefronts on 14th street were still shuttered (and plenty of lots were still burned down). U Street had Ben's (perennially) and that one chicken and waffles place, and that was it. You wanted groceries? There was Sonya's on 11th which might or might not have lunchmeat or produce that day. You wanted anything else? Take the bus to Ft. Totten and get on the Metro out to Maryland. Oddly enough, all of the complaints I heard about Target finally moving in were from white people who were worried the neighborhood wouldn't be "authentic" anymore; most people really liked that they could go buy underwear in their own neighborhood for the first time in a generation.

Anyways, my point is I'm sympathetic to the Nero argument here to some extent (he burned down parts of Rome to redevelop them), and I know Baltimore isn't DC, but it's an incredibly expensive way to do what already happens.

Starbucks with a Lulumon store and maybe a White House Black Market store. It will be back - but not what it was.

Yeah, but that was always true. Neighborhoods in cities change every generation or so, and there's not really a way to change that.