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

“This was not the case a few years ago,” she said with a sigh. But now, with loitering, panhandling and open drug use at her Hamline-Midway store in St. Paul, she and her husband, Ted, are considering moving their business elsewhere.

The Vigas are among dozens of neighbors and business owners who have been frustrated by the rise in crime in their neighborhood. In recent community meetings, they have expressed their frustrations with law enforcement and elected officials, saying the global pandemic has ushered in an era of fentanyl addiction, homeless people, burglaries and inactivity that is becoming so difficult that it prevents customers from taking care of their businesses.

Law enforcement agencies, social services, non-profit organizations and others are working On these issues, more needs to be done to get people off the streets and provide them with the resources they need, whether it’s housing, health care, or post-criminal arrest assistance.

A member of the Anishinaabe White Earth Band in Minnesota, Vig believes she is the only Native person in the state, and possibly nationally, to own a custom guitar repair and sales business, Vig Guitars. She grew up a few blocks from her business and thought 10 years ago it was the perfect place to locate because of its central location, easy access and strong sense of community. She said many musicians, including college students at nearby Hamline University, live in and around the area.

Her section of the Snelling Avenue commercial corridor between University Avenue and Thomas Street is lined with small businesses, and around the corner from her store is a small park. Vig said there was a small camp in the park during the summer, though it has since been cleared. She nodded toward the building across from Snelling, where one person was openly using drugs while another sat with a pile of things.