Bah! Humbug! Our visit into downtown Trenton for Small Business Saturday, identified as a day to support micro-enterprise, found empty streets and many storefronts covered by steel grates. The capital city looked and felt like a ghost town, especially along East State and North Broad streets. A cold , hawkish wind may have played a role in these deserted conditions but primarily one observation tolls — Trenton remains on life support as politicians hope the city can hold on long enough for gentrification to take hold. In a weird set of circumstances nearly sixty years after white flight snuffed the life out of this capital city and many other northeast urban communities, Trenton hopes to welcome back Caucasians as life savers determined enough to claim this place as their own; willing to dole dollars on sending their children to private schools; along with Blacks and Latinos with money. Bah! Humbug! Our 45-minute walk in downtown Trenton found only a handful of visitors. Cold weather had chased most people from the dreadful intersection of North Broad and East State streets. Back in April 3, 1967, before they killed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an assassination that fueled riots, looting and destruction, that destroyed downtown Trenton, the capital city bustled with department stores, restaurants, salons, jewelry businesses, butchers, and other businesses. Trenton lost more than $7 million in businesses during a week of fires and free for all looting. An understandable exodus of white-owned businesses and residents sucked the life out of Trenton which continues to fall deeper into poverty. Our shopping spree included a walk into a sneaker and apparel store on East State St. — clean, variety of items and courteous employees. We were the only shoppers. Another business described as a department store preyed on people with low incomes. A return trip to our parked car on South Warren St. took us past those steel grates. Perhaps if those sturdy security walls had been around during the 1960s social arrest, some businesses might have survived. Ask anyone familiar with the past downtown Trenton and they will talk about it being nothing like the present. The future looks bleak, too. Bah! Humbug! L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at [email protected]. ...read more read less