Ejections have consequences:
Every time a customer buys some of the large fabric tote bags from the Dollar Store at 43rd Avenue and Thomas Road, Najmuddin Katchi sees another piece of his business vanish.
The purchase of the briefcase-sized shoulder bags means that another one of Katchi’s customers, mostly Latino immigrants, is packing to leave the state before what is touted as the nation’s toughest law against illegal immigrants takes effect July 29.
Katchi’s store isn’t the only business suffering. The vast shopping center that holds his small shop is almost empty. The Food City supermarket closed this spring. Then the furniture shop. Then the pizzeria.
The giant apartment complex across the street, once brimming with tenants, is two-thirds vacant. Katchi is behind on his rent.
“The business is broken,” said Katchi, who has operated his shop at this intersection for 14 years. “After the 29th of July, what happens? Maybe I have to close the store.”
For the last 20 years, Arizona has been one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. It depends on an expanding population to power its economy, which relies heavily on the construction of new houses.
At the corner of 43rd and Thomas, it’s hard to determine how much of the neighborhood’s woes stem from Arizona’s immigration laws and how much from the state’s economy, battered by a once red-hot housing marked that cooled.
Katchi’s revenue was already sagging before April 23, when Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law. Since then, sales have plummeted. […]
When immigrants leave, Gans said, “stores experience dramatic drops in sales. Apartment owners who rent to immigrants have high vacancy rates and risk losing their buildings. Legal workers or renters or consumers don’t generally step in quickly enough to prevent these businesses from experiencing real additional hardship.”
At 43rd and Thomas, such short-term economic perils are no abstraction.
“If people don’t come here, I don’t make money and I don’t pay taxes,” Katchi said.
People, this is no way to exploit the poor. You’ve let the nativist propaganda used to distract one group of working stiffs to go too far, and now you’re feeling the pinch.
Can we all just agree to demonize Muslims instead?*
*(Proposed solution does not apply to the State of Michigan)
July 28, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Hey, Newt’s taking care of Muslim Demonization right now…
July 28, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I’ve actually had this conversation with various online nativists before: it’s not exactly a new phenomenon that pressuring a large chunk of your local population to leave causes local businesses to dry up and go away.
Their response, always, is that a business that sells to illegals isn’t a business, it’s a criminal enterprise. They’d honestly rather have the boarded up storefronts.
For such alleged fans of capitalism, they are shockingly underinformed about how it actually works. Okay, maybe not so shocking.
July 29, 2010 at 3:24 am
I’ve always been fascinated by shadow and underground economies….
Perhaps to make up for the lost tote bag revenue, we should completely militarize the entire length of the southern border. Turn it into one long Okinawa strung out on steroids, complete with tens of thousands of military personnel, base camps, barracks, landing strips, ammunition depots, and what not.
July 29, 2010 at 5:36 am
Nah, costs too much.
How about a vast, inhospitable, arid, baking, desolate wasteland?
Wait, what?…we’ve already got those, inside of Teabagger’s heads? Damn.
July 28, 2010 at 5:02 pm
What, you couldn’t find a Charro video?
July 28, 2010 at 11:59 pm
At first, I thought the title of this post was referring to the decline of fried dough vendors in Arizona.
I still thought that after reading the post.
Then I consulted Wikipedia.
July 29, 2010 at 6:36 am
Today is Geddy Lee’s birthday. That used to mean something around here. Timez change.
July 29, 2010 at 8:43 am
One wonders how the Rushskies feel about American teabaggers. I wait to see Michelle Bachmann wave a copy of The Fountainhead in COngress.
July 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hey, what’s the problem here. You just KNOW good honest Americans will step in to take those jobs those Mexicans leave behind.
And if you believe that, I have some Bear Sterns stock you might like to buy…
July 29, 2010 at 3:55 pm
the law of unintended consequences must just be a theory, nothing to really be concerned about, when writing real laws into the books
remember, gravity is just a theory, too, also, in addition
July 29, 2010 at 8:37 pm
– Things that have been lost to the Poorman Archives, 2004 Edition-
Kleber wrote:
“Wrong on so many sublime levels the first sneak joint from The Poorman feat Contributor B is a fully realized Red Bull, Tylenol #3, and Robitussin induced overdose, coma nightmare. This delicious melange of 1970s Kraut Rock, Slut Funk, and Post Ambient Industrial Dance, demands that the listener imagine the ramifications involved if an orgy involving Peggy Noonan, Damo Suzuki, RZA, Klaus Schultze. El Producto, Holger Czukay, George Clinton, and Renate Knaup-Kroetenschawanz was broadcast to millions for the entire three hours of the 1977 Grammy Awards Broadcast in lieu of the usual musical performances and award presentations. This is “Tago Mago” meets “Ahh… The Name is Bootsy, Baby!” for the Kerry Generation. A Crank, Heroine, and Orange Crush, infused political commercial broadcast right after the first quarter of the 1974 Super Bowl.
When you’re wondering what that new shiz is bumping from Nugget’s Center Nene’s Hummer next Summer, y’all already know it’s the fo’ really though triumph of these two hella’ funked up cats. No track wanted me to rub my eyes raw with pink insulation AND shake my behind AND Stage a bloodless coup this Season like Gutter Politix 1. Run it back.”
Ahh the good ol’ days.
July 30, 2010 at 11:17 am
Was more fun when we were spamming with impunity.
July 30, 2010 at 4:57 pm
It’s like Magma without Jannick Top!
July 30, 2010 at 4:58 pm
No, Bubbles have consequences.
August 1, 2010 at 12:17 am
I didn’t know.
I did open the champagne cork to hear your sorrows.
Sorry about your whoever, he didn’t win the marketing war. I’d like to write his story but he’s a looser(sp). Like yourself, no-one cares… Anyhow, take heart, you’ve your fifteen minutes…