ST. PAUL, Minn. — The tight-knit, community-centered atmosphere of St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood inspired Angie and Ted Vig’s guitar shop, Vig Guitars, to open its current location on Snelling Avenue 10 years ago. He brought it to the place.
“After the riot started, people started coming out and cleaning up, helping out and asking if anyone needed help,” Angie Vig said.
But the current drug epidemic, as Angie calls it, sometimes runs rampant outside of her job, affecting public perception and, in turn, foot traffic.
“I don’t stop by a certain store because there are people gathered in front of it,” Vig said.
The drug problem and shoplifting started around the time of the COVID-19 shutdown, she said.
Frustration over drug use and crime boiled over at meetings Thursday night at Hamline and Midway city halls.
“I could see it getting a little hot,” Vig said.
According to a September St. Paul Police Department incident report, the epicenter of fentanyl-fueled drug activity was centered around the Kimball Court Apartments on Snelling Avenue.
“Burnt aluminum foil and dirty needles litter every doorway, alleyway, passageway between buildings and dark areas,” the report said. The report goes on to say that employees at the nearby Holiday and Taco Bell “are constantly threatened and harassed because they do not tolerate shoplifting.”
“A Taco Bell DoorDash driver has been robbed several times in front of the store,” the report states.
The situation has gotten so bad that Vig Guitars’ owners said they are considering moving the business to another area.
“It seems like we’re being forced to move or leave,” Vig said.
Vig said there are no easy answers to solving the neighborhood’s drug epidemic.
“There’s a lot of help out there, but there’s also a lot of people who don’t want to take it.”
