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Angie Vig sat in her cozy, sun-soaked guitar shop and gazed wistfully at busy Snelling Avenue and the neighborhood she clearly loves.

“It wasn’t like that even a few years ago,” she said with a sigh. But now, with all the pandering, panhandling and open drug use around her shop in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, she and her husband, Ted, are considering moving their business elsewhere.

The Vigs are among dozens of neighbors and business owners who have been frustrated by the rise in crime in their area. During recent community meetings, they voiced those frustrations to law enforcement and elected officials, saying the global pandemic has ushered in an era of fentanyl addiction, homelessness, burglary and vagrancy that is becoming so heavy that it prevents customers from confronting. their businesses.

Although law enforcement, social service agencies, nonprofits, and others he works On the problem side, more needs to be done to get people off the streets and connect them with the resources they need — whether it’s housing, health care, or help after being arrested for crimes.

A member of the Anishinaabe White Earth Band of Minnesota, Vig believes she is the only Native person in the state, and perhaps nationwide, who owns a guitar repair and sales business, Vig Guitars. She grew up just blocks from her business and thought it was the perfect place to locate 10 years ago because of its centrality, easy access and strong sense of community. She said many musicians, including students from nearby Hamline University, live in and around the neighborhood.

Her stretch of the Snelling Avenue commercial corridor between University Avenue and Thomas Street is lined with small businesses, and kitty-corner from her store is a small park. Vig said a small camp was in the park during the summer, though it has since been vacated. She nodded toward a building across Snelling, where one person was openly using drugs and another was sitting with a pile of stuff.