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Early in the George Floyd riots, as police were busy responding, someone drove a car into Thurston Jewelers on Lake Street in Minneapolis. Looters flooded the store, smashing display cases. Lloyd Drilling said he was lucky his most valuable jewelry was in the safe. Everything else that could be taken out of the store was stolen.
“So we were out of business for a few months and had to rebuild and get the store back on track,” Drilling said.
Riots, looting linked to George Floyd protests leave a trail of destruction in cities across US
The jewellery stores bounced back, but their customers did not.
A bellwether of the movement to defund the police, this city has homeless people on almost every block, outdoor drug use is too common to go unnoticed and petty crime is rife in businesses that have reopened.
Minneapolis residents woke up to take stock of the damage after peaceful protests following the death during arrest of George Floyd turned increasingly violent, with rioters setting fires and looting stores across the city. Here, a 190-unit apartment building under construction (right), tentatively called Midtown Corner, burned to the ground at 26th and 29th Streets. (Photo by Brian Peterson/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
As a result, Drilling says suburbanites who once helped propel his business from survival to thriving are no longer coming downtown. “I think they just don’t feel safe in the city, in the area and in the suburbs,” he said. [other] “In this area, they’re a little scared to come here,” Drilling said.
Shop owner whose store was “destroyed” by BLM riots under Governor Walz’s watch shares heartbreaking experience
In downtown Minneapolis, criminals are making life difficult for businesses on all sides. Koby Rich opened a cosmetics store. He put a painted rectangle of plywood over the front door of Rich Girls Cosmetics because vandals keep breaking the glass in his front door. He’s tired of spending money on repairs.
“It’s been tough because we’ve had vandalism – windows being broken, doors being kicked in, the whole store being vandalized,” Rich said.
A protester holds a sign that reads “Blue Lives Murder” on the evening of Friday, May 29, 2020. (Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jim Schultz of the Minnesota Private Business Council says there’s a direct connection between the rise in crime and the leadership of Governor Tim Walz. “Many of our state’s Democratic leaders supported very reckless policies on policing and crime,” Schultz said. “The result was the largest increase in violent crime in Minnesota history, and Governor Tim Walz presided over that. Minnesota businesses are still feeling the effects of that.”
Even without crime, business owners and leaders say Minnesota under Governor Walz is not friendly to job creators.
Ex-officer Derek Chauvin convicted of killing George Floyd moved to new prison months after stabbing
The state has the highest statutory corporate tax rate in the nation, at 9.8 percent. Doug Loon of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce says the Walz administration missed opportunities to add jobs because the governor had other priorities. “Many progressive policies passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor have limited the private sector from realizing its economic potential,” Loon said.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, running mate to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, attends a campaign kickoff rally at the Liacoras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
According to the Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota currently ranks 47th in the nation for job creation and 46th in gross domestic product.
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Kent Bergman opened a restaurant called Campanelle in Lino Lakes, a suburb of Minneapolis. He survived the COVID-19 lockdown, but he’s still living off his own savings, plagued by taxes and regulations and not being able to bring home any profits. “All the regulations and everything that’s put on small businesses, restaurants, by the state, makes it almost impossible for small businesses and restaurants to survive,” Bergman said.
