South Mpls parents opposing open drug use in their neighborhood told that their children do not deserve safety
The South Minneapolis restaurant Post Modern Times is drawing in hundreds of unhoused people to its residential neighborhood each day with the promise of free food. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. After getting their food many of those unhoused people are then entering the nearby alleys and trespassing on to private properties to do hard drugs, defecate, and steal. They litter their drug paraphernalia and burned pieces of tinfoil containing trace amounts of drugs along with their to-go containers from the restaurant.
Many neighbors in this area have also reported that their garages are being broken into and their packages are being stolen. Neighbors have been complaining to the restaurant and to the city, but they have seen little improvement. Frustratingly, many neighbors have reported that the restaurant owner, Dylan Alverson, is being combative and dismissive toward their concerns.
A community meeting took place on June 15 facilitated by “Confluence Studio”. After many of the impacted neighbors were allowed to speak there were a number of anti-neighbor Post Modern Times supporters (who don’t live in the directly impacted neighborhood) who said some pretty telling things:
- - One person insisted that the neighbors “NEED to be inconvenienced” by the unhoused people.
- - Another person stated without hesitation that the children in the neighborhood do NOT deserve safety.
- - And another person argued that the neighbors are racist and that their opposition to the negative impacts of Post Modern Time's new model is “bitch made”.
Meanwhile, on the Confluence Studio instagram page (@confluencestudio), a commenter stated “Tell your children to stop being so soft” in response to a comment describing the negative impacts on children in the neighborhood.
Helping the unhoused is great and all that, but Dylan Alverson of Post Modern Times rushed into this and didn’t pause to consider the negative impacts that his new business model would have on this neighborhood, leaving the neighbors to deal with the consequences of his decisions.
Alverson is showing that he cares more about the unhoused people and appearing virtuous than showing basic respect to the neighborhood in which his business resides. He could’ve approached this differently in order to ensure that families and their properties wouldn’t be threatened by the huge increase of unhoused people streaming through the neighborhood. Of course this neighborhood has experienced wandering unhoused people in the past, but never anything to this degree. There’s a parade of unhoused people all day long going to and from the restaurant and they use the neighborhood as their drug use site and toilet.