Uptown in crisis

Uptown’s once vibrant commercial district is being pushed to the brink, leaving struggling business owners pleading for help.

Community members and business owners have been voicing concerns since fall 2025 about an acute escalation of drug users, unhoused people and large groups loitering at transit stations and outside of businesses in the Uptown area. 

Litter and graffiti in an alcove outside of Seven Points in late January has led to other building alcoves being fenced in.

Brian Gabrial

This comes after much fanfare following the reopening of Hennepin Avenue last November when city leaders declared that the thoroughfare through Uptown was open for business.

“The biggest problem that I am seeing consistently is the open-air drug use, the homelessness,” Mike Savage, a security guard at a financial business in the Seven Points building, said.

An alcove area at the Seven Points building was fenced off as of Feb. 23.

Brian Gabrial

Savage and other security personnel said they can only do so much.

 “Anything that is public space is outside of our realm. We can’t do anything about it other than inform the police, Metro Transit PD,” Savage said, adding he can only watch the drug use taking place at the B-Line transit stop. 

Mike Savage works security for a financial institution near the Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue intersection. From his vantage point the retired military veteran witnesses daily drug use and drug dealing.

Brian Gabrial

Security at Seven Points told Southwest Voices it evicted more than 1,200 unhoused people from its multi-level parking structure in January 2026. They evicted 46 people in January 2025. 

According to security, the Seven Points building is locked to deter drug use and other illegal activity inside, and building alcoves outside are fenced in to keep unhoused people and drug users out. Shoppers can enter Seven Points near the security offices close to the parking structure on Girard Avenue at Lake Street or from any shop’s street entrances. 

That’s little comfort for shop owners who are also dealing with business losses in the wake of the federal government’s “Operation Metro Surge” that peaked in January.  

 “If we don’t find a solution, there’s no reason to be here,” said Marsha Magdalene, who opened Shop My Closet consignment boutique in Seven Points last summer.

Amanda Vallone, who opened ARTageous Adventures in Seven Points Mall last fall said,  “It’s hard to convince people to come out here when they don’t feel safe or they see what’s happening in the streets.” 

Amanda Vallone stands inside her business, ARTrageous Adventures, located in the Seven Points building.

Brian Gabrial

Magdalene also believes the City has had a slow response to the increase in drug use in Uptown. “I think that at the end of the day where is the accountability?” Magdalene said.  

Is the City doing enough? 

The City of Minneapolis acknowledges the substance use issue in Uptown and noted “many of the issues residents are observing are occurring on private property,” which falls outside of what the City can address. 

“We understand the frustration being expressed and are continuing to communicate and coordinate with property owners, Minneapolis police, and City departments to address both cleanliness and public safety concerns,” Allen Henry, media relations coordinator for the City of Minneapolis, said. 

Ward 7 Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer, whose ward borders the commercial end of Uptown, has been receiving constant emails from her constituents about the deteriorating state of Uptown, telling her they won’t go into the area because of the open drug use and homelessness. Business owners tell her they are at the end of their ropes.

“It's like a dead zone there,” Ward 7 Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer said about the Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street area. “Our city just cannot have that kind of reputation growing, right?” 

Savage, who has been threatened with physical violence evicting drug dealers, said some customers at his job are choosing other locations to visit. They tell him they “don’t feel comfortable going there” even though it’s a block from their house.

Restoring Uptown’s vibrancy is a top priority for Shaffer, a first-term council member. Even so, some business owners said they don’t think city leaders are paying enough attention. 

“I still think there is a disconnect because they are not walking the streets every day,” Aaron Blaser, co-owner of Curioso Coffee Bar at Seven Points, said, adding leaders get their information “secondhand” without seeing the problems firsthand.

Aaron Blaser, co-owner of Curioso Coffee Bar, stands near the entrance of the new location of the Seven Points coffee shop. The cafe's original location was in the mall's atrium.

Brian Gabrial

Shaffer’s office is coordinating with the Minneapolis Police Department, Metro Transit, the Park Police Department, Hennepin County and the Ward 10 office about Uptown. Shaffer said she learned at a February community meeting at the Walker Library that 300 calls came into the City about drug activity around the library in January. A year ago, only 30 calls were reported. 

Ward 10 Council Member Aisha Chughtai, who represents the east side of the Uptown corridor, did not return Southwest Voices’ multiple requests for comment. Chughtai did meet with stakeholders on Feb. 26 to hear their concerns. 

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and the police killing of Winston Smith in the Seven Points parking structure in 2021, some Uptowners remain leery about increasing police presence and call on the City’s Behavioral Crisis Response Team to act more quickly to handle non-life-threatening issues that involve drug use or mental health.  

Hilary Otey, a co-founder and general manager of Queermunity, said BCR teams often arrive too late to do any good. She has had to hire additional staff to contend with people who do not “respect the space” or are doing drugs on the premises. Both Otey and Blaser said the City should do more to fund more BCR teams.

Other organized, compassionate efforts to feed unhoused people, for example, have had some unexpectedly adverse effects. Shop owners report seeing more trash and used needles on the street following these efforts.

Surviving in Uptown 

“Bringing new businesses in and store fronts are the key to changing the tide for Uptown and the revitalization,” Vallone said.

Shaffer agrees but worries about their sustainability.

 “We have these great stores that come in, and then after a year and a half they're like, we can't do it anymore,” Shaffer said. 

For Vallone and Blaser, it is not just a matter of increasing security but also helping start-ups contend with an unforgiving City bureaucracy.

Blaser, whose coffee shop opened in December after relocating from another spot in Seven Points, said working with the City can be overwhelming because its departments rarely communicate with one another. 

“There seems to be a lot of support and encouragement to start new businesses,” Blaser said, but navigating the bureaucracy and completing required paperwork can be daunting.

He urges the City leaders to see this as a crisis requiring immediate attention, suggesting hiring a special crisis compliance officer, who would be a special point person for Uptown. This person could help business owners deal with regulatory agencies, although Blaser admits it might just create another bureaucratic hurdle for small businesses.

Common Ground and Solutions

Last fall, Vallone, Blaser, his business partner Luke Hofland and the team at Lucent Blue Events + Design, received a Minneapolis Vibrant Storefront grant to create True North Studio x Curioso Coffee Bar in Seven Points. The grant pays rental costs for two years. 

ARTrageous Adventures hosted a Mardi Gras family day on Feb. 15.

Amanda Vallone

“I am optimistic,” Vallone said. “I believe our City officials have very good intentions. It’s just a matter of communicating and not in silos.” Vallone said Minneapolis law enforcement and regulatory agencies appear to not know what the other is doing.

Shaffer has also identified this issue as a council member, especially as it concerns County and City officials working together.

Shaffer, who advocates for compassionate responses in dealing with vulnerable people, said Hennepin County officials must also be held accountable. 

“We can't let the county commissioners hide in the shadows on this either,” she said. “They are the ones that provide all the homeless services. They are the ones that provide most of the opioid response.” 

Shaffer said she would also like to have embedded social workers working with the MPD.

But this requires a concerted, collaborative effort among agencies like the Minneapolis Police Department, Park Police, Metro Transit Police and county agencies.  

A coordinated response headquarters for MPD, Metro Transit Police, and the Park Police Department is taking shape at the Rainbow Building on the northwest corner of Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street. 

Metro Transit spokesperson Drew Kerr confirmed Metro Transit Police’s participation at the Rainbow Building, adding it regularly patrols the area and monitors transit shelters and stations in Uptown. 

 Metro Transit will have more TRIP agents on the B Line in the next few months to observe and report issues at the B Line Stations.

A Metro Transit worker power washes the west side of the Uptown Transit Center along Hennepin Avenue on March 6.

Drew Kerr

Currently, MPD’s Fifth Precinct has two officers assigned to a directed patrol unit that are “a precinct-wide, flexible resource.” This unit started on Dec. 28, 2025 and includes the Uptown area. 

The officers patrol during weekday daytime hours and try to address problems on the streets proactively. 

“The goal is to improve visibility, address chronic nuisance behavior proactively, and build relationships with residents and businesses,” MPD’s Public Information Officer Sergeant Garrett Parten said.

The City began daily litter removal in Uptown in January, the highest frequency for any part of the city during the winter, according to Henry. Crews also regularly look for graffiti, overflowing trash and recycling bins. The trash removal is paid for by nearby property owners. 

Working to Save Uptown

The Seven Points signage at the top of the mall is gone, signaling that construction may begin soon on a long-awaited development.

Minneapolis-based developer Doran Companies bought part of the Seven Points building from Northpond Partners in late February, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The two developers had been working together to turn the south end of the mall into a residential building, which Doran now owns.

The Seven Points sign has been removed from the top of the building as of early March. Groups of people often congregate in the mall’s outside foyer area where the doors are locked.

Melody Hoffmann

A new effort to discourage drug use and dealing is a locally-organized community ambassador program. Eric Enge with the Uptown Association has been working with Kevin Norman of the newly formed Uptown United organization to create volunteer groups of 10 or more people to walk around Uptown streets on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

The goals of the walking group are to identify trouble spots, help drug users find resources they need and let drug dealers know “it’s not okay for you to be here,” Enge said. 

Uptown United is hosting a meeting on March 19 at 6 p.m. at the new Arizona Tacos space in the Seven Points building. The meeting will include remarks from business owners, the Fifth Precinct’s crime prevention specialist, and a discussion about the community ambassador program. 

Norman said he is hopeful the program will work, especially after how residents have been responding to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in Minneapolis. 

“People can see what activism can do,” Norman said. “It actually works.” 

For politicians like Shaffer, solving the drug problem, homelessness and other issues is a top priority for her office. 

“We're not going to bring back economic vitality until we figure this out,” Shaffer said. “I can't reiterate how important it is for me and how much responsibility I feel to see progress in this area because this is my neighborhood.” 

For others, Uptown is a significant part of their personal story. 

“Uptown is near and dear to my heart because when I first moved to Minneapolis, I rented a little apartment with my young children in Uptown,” Vallone said. “And it was so vibrant, and it was so cool and edgy and had a lot of small businesses in it.”’

Similarly, Savage holds memories of Uptown’s heyday as a place for great shops, restaurants and bars but wonders if redevelopment in other areas in the city came at Uptown’s expense. 

“When I look at Northeast and North Loop, which used to be just a warehouse district and nothing going on, nothing but the same problems that we’re having here,” Savage said. “Now, they are booming. I’m wondering, did we give up Uptown for Northeast and North Loop?”