Small businesses in college towns struggle without students

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Perry Porikos sat in the street outside one of his five businesses, in a makeshift patio area that didn’t exist before the COVID-19 pandemic sent his best customers — University of Michigan students — back home in mid-March.

The Greek immigrant arrived here more than four decades ago as a 20-year-old soccer player for the Wolverines and part-time dishwasher at The Brown Jug Restaurant, which he now owns. He nonchalantly dropped names of sports stars like Tom Brady and Michael Phelps, two of the many former Michigan students he counts as friends, and recalled hustling enough to own more than 10 businesses at one time.

“Living the dream that people talk about, especially if you live in Europe and you come here,” Porikos said, “I am the dream.”

Lately, though, it has been difficult for Porikos to rest easy. And he’s not alone.

Both the stress and the stakes are high for all the small business owners near Michigan's campus on and around South University Avenue, which winds through the city of about 120,000 residents -- about one-third of them students.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — Small businesses around the world are fighting for survival amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Whether they make it will affect not just local economies but the fabric of communities. Associated Press journalists tell their stories in the series “Small Business Struggles.”

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The fall term will begin Monday with at least some in-person classes on campus, which has generated equal parts of hope and anxiety for those who need students to return to pay the bills.

A big part of the worry: Will students take the measures essential to keep infections from surging? The early signs aren’t promising. Alarmed by pictures of unsafe...