September 13, 2022

Mayor Jacob Frey & the City Council of the City of Minneapolis: 

We are concerned citizens and community leaders who live, work, do business, worship, attend school, and more near the intersection of West Broadway Avenue & Lyndale Avenue North in North Minneapolis. We are here in North Minneapolis because we sincerely love this community and want to see it flourish.

Right now, that flourishing is being deeply threatened on the corner of Broadway and Lyndale by the concentration of violence, drug sales, drug use, poverty, and homelessness. These are not isolated issues here, but they are exacerbated by businesses that routinely ignore their responsibility to the community and seem uninterested in running their business in ways that would benefit the community. Merwin Liquor and Winner Gas Station appear to be side-stepping their responsibilities as business operators. Their business practices allow for continuous loitering, gambling, open-air drug sales & drug use in front of their doors, fights, and much more. Those conditions regularly devolve into gun violence. There have been 18 gunshot victims this year alone at these two businesses.

In the last 2 weeks, 8 people have been shot--4 inside Merwin Liquors, including one employee, and 4 outside Winner Gas. That does not even account for the number of other gun incidents, fights, and other disturbances on their watch. This corner is under siege, and these businesses are adding to these conditions, profiting while lives are being devastated daily.

This is not the Minneapolis any of us want, and it’s definitely not the Minneapolis we deserve.

To that end, we, the undersigned, are demanding that Mayor Jacob Frey, the Mayor’s office, and the Minneapolis City Council immediately review the business licenses of both Merwin Liquor and Winner Gas Station. If it is shown that these businesses are operating in ways that are harmful to this community and this city, we demand that the city would revoke their business licenses, removing their ability to make a profit off of the suffering and death of others.

Similarly, we, the undersigned, demand that a proactive community safety plan be developed and enacted immediately that both addresses the immediate threat of violence on the corner of West Broadway and Lyndale and also deals with the longer-term root issues that lead to what we’re seeing each day on this corner.
The community needs to see that Mayor Frey and the current Minneapolis City Council are as concerned about the well-being of those in North Minneapolis as they are about other parts of the city. We need to see that our leaders can rise to the moment’s challenge and serve all Minneapolis residents, especially those who face historical inequalities and underinvestment.

The Sanctuary Covenant Church