[Grampa Dave]

In reality, they’ve trashed their own neighborhood and made it highly unlikely that any new businesses will want to set up shop to serve the community there ever again.

Decades after the MLK riots in DC, the burned out shells of buildings were still there. No one came in to bull doze the burnt hulks and to build new stores!

[PUGACHEV]

That’s true, those buildings destroyed in the MLK riots in the ‘60s remained as hulks, until D.C. began to re-gentrify decades later. Now, you couldn’t touch the worst for under 500K.

[P.O.E.]

A lot of cities I grew up around in NJ were only recently starting to make a comeback from the devastation of the riots of the 60s and rot of the 70s.

They were still bastions of government handouts, but were seeing gentrifications as the hipsters rediscovered the hidden charms.

Between the virus and now this, will they take another 50-60 years to revive?

[left that other site]

Decades after the MLK riots in DC, the burned out shells of buildings were still there. No one came in to bull doze the burnt hulks and to build new stores!

How right you are, Dear Grampa Dave! In the 1990's I rode my Harley to DC for Rolling Thunder. I took a wrong turn in Washington and ended up on New York Ave, desperately needing gas. As I was filling up, I noticed across the street an entire block of burned out buildings.

"Oh my," I asked the attendant. "Was there a terrible fire here?"

"No, Ma'am," said the Gas Station Attendant, who was a middle-aged Black man. "That's from the Martin Luther King Riots. They just never tore 'em down."