ST. PAUL, Minn. — The tight-knit, community-centered feel of St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood is what brought Angie and Ted Vig’s guitar shop, Vig Guitars, to their current location along Snelling Avenue ten years ago.
“After the unrest happened, everybody came out and started cleaning up and helping and asking if we needed help,” said Angie Vig. However, a recent epidemic, as Angie calls it, of widespread narcotics use — sometimes just outside her business — has impacted public perception, and in turn, foot traffic.
“They won’t stop in because people are gathered in front of a certain business,” said Vig. Drug issues and shoplifting began around the time of the COVID shutdown, she said…