Minneapolis Restaurants Are Empty, Crippled By Safety Concerns

(KNSI) – Violence is keeping people away from restaurants. Nowhere is that more true than in the Twin Cities. The reservation service OpenTable uses 2019 as a baseline for its ‘State of the Industry‘ data. In July, bookings to eat out in Minneapolis were down 54 percent compared to three years ago.

The shocking trend is hardly letting up even as a high-profile crime crackdown is underway. The number of people eating out in the Twin Cities fell by nearly 50 percent from August 9th through the 20th.

Other cities logging a large decline include Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. All have seen violent crime surge to multi-decade highs, if not all-time records.

Congressman Tom Emmer invited St. Paul chef Brian Ingram to testify on Capitol Hill last month on the effect crime has had on his business. It has forced him to reduce the hours his establishments are open. “We have a breakfast restaurant that used to open at 6:00 a.m., and now we’ve pushed that back to 7:00 a.m. just because we wanted it to be light out before our staff would come in; restaurants closing at 10:00. We have a pub that would primarily do business late night, that is now closed.”

Ingram said that poor and minority neighborhoods are being hit the hardest. “It’s one in three [restaurants] now that are closing down and typically those are in areas that are underserved. We are seeing restaurants, we are seeing businesses close day in and day out and it continues to grow. Right now, in Minneapolis, it’s a ghost town when you drive through Minneapolis.”

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