by Jim Hightower
Those "free market" ideologues who keep insisting that there's no such thing as a corporate class war being waged against the workaday people of our country – might want to take a look at the Bronx Terminal Market in New York City for a classic example.
This market is free enterprise in action. Some two dozen very unique, independent merchants sell their foodstuffs here, drawing customers from as far away as Ohio. If you're looking for Ghanaian smoked shrimp, hot Jamaican peppers, or Philippine sea moss, the Bronx market is your mother lode. These merchants are hard-working folks who start their days in the wee hours, providing the largest clearinghouse of ethnic foods on the East Coast.
But New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican, is no fan of true free enterprise. He's a Wall Street corporatist, and he's using his governmental power and the taxpayers' dollars to drive these enterprising merchants out of business. In the name of "economic development," he's trying to replace their homegrown businesses with a new, plastic, suburban-style mall featuring big-box chain stores from Anywhere USA.
Related Companies, a retail developer, is getting a sweetheart deal from Bloomberg to shove the small businesses out: He has waived some of the taxes the city normally assesses for such construction projects, he will let Related skip the expenses of producing an environmental impact statement, he has committed $80 million in city bonds to finance the deal, and he has agreed to repay Related's $32.5 million private development loan if its mall project fails. All of this giveaway to create yet another cookie-cutter mall.
http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11668 
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