“Cruising through downtown Minneapolis is not what it once was. On some stretches the largest city in the state looks more like a ghost town”.
“This is by far the biggest challenge that I’ve ever had in my 20 years of owning businesses downtown,” said Erik Forsberg, who owns Devil’s Advocate and two other downtown restaurants. They’ve been closed since COVID-19 started and crime multiplied.
A new survey by the Downtown Council shows 45 business owners say they are considering leaving downtown – citing the lack of people working or socializing downtown – and the idea that the police department could be dismantled.
Though they won’t say which businesses are considering pulling out of downtown, the council says one of the businesses employs 600 people.
That could mean a lot of empty spaces”.