East Lansing is beginning to look more like corporate America as small, locally-owned businesses close to make room for larger, chain-owned stores.

The latest victim: Blue Note Coffee Café. After four years of trying to sell the store, its owners are being forced out of their 623 E. Grand River Ave. location, where the cafe has operated since its 1997 opening.

Cron Management is not renewing the cafe owners’ lease to make room for an unnamed franchise that has offered to pay more for the space.

But the cafe is not the first local business to suffer as Grand River Avenue’s window fronts change to resemble a mainstream shopping mall.

With many commercial chains and national franchises being lured by East Lansing’s attractive and lucrative “college-town” market, many independent, family- and locally-owned businesses are being forced to pack up shop.

Bagel Fragel Deli, 521 E. Grand River Ave., closed its doors in May 2001, citing competition with national franchise Bruegger’s Bagels, 505 E. Grand River Ave., and rising rent prices as the major contributing factors to its demise.

It’s a shame East Lansing’s locally-owned shops are becoming fewer and fewer.

In May 2001, Sparty’s Coney Island restaurant closed its 1127 E. Grand River Ave. and Qdoba Mexican Grill - a corporate chain - moved in.

This is seen too often in towns and cities across the country. Giant corporations and companies swallow spaces in small markets and choke out any competition with small, independent establishments.

Those stores often lose some of their business and are then forced to close.

But this is not indicative of what MSU students and East Lansing residents desire. Students and residents are drawn to the comfortable atmospheres found in the city’s unique “ma-and-pop” stores.

Downtown East Lansing should be filled with more of these locally-owned businesses that have the spirit of the city and its residents in mind - not the larger corporate ones that seem to spring up everywhere a profit can be found.

Of course, corporately-owned businesses are not evil in themselves - its nice to have stores that carry brand-name items close by. But it’s the locally-owned businesses that give the city its flavor.

East Lansing should never become a cookie-cutter shopping district.

There needs to be more support for local businesses in East Lansing.

With more support and encouragement from city officials and residents, these establishments can thrive and compete with chain stores.

But until that support comes, expect to read more about locally-owned stores forced to close.