In 2009, Joe Ricketts founded DNAinfo.com, a digital news Service that used to cover neighborhood news in New York City and Chicago. Ricketts shut it down on November 2, 2017, one week after their employees voted to unionize. Gone with it were Gothamist, Chicagoist, DCist, LAist, SFist, and Shanghaiist. On the 3rd of November, 2017, archived versions of Gothamist, DNAinfo, and other sites were back up. In September 2017, Ricketts explained his actions by stating "I believe unions promote a corrosive us-against-them dynamic that destroys the esprit de corps businesses need to succeed."