By Paula Chesley. Paula is running for the Ward 7 seat on the Minneapolis City Council.
I’m sad to write that Open Hair Space (formerly Fox Den Salon) in Uptown (Ward 10) will be moving to Richfield at the end of this month – one of 70+ businesses in Uptown to have closed or left since 2020. This was a salon I’d been going to since 2016. When I talked with Kristina Early of the Curl Salon on Hennepin and Franklin about her experience of having a small business in Uptown, she mentioned I should talk to Sica Dawn, the owner of Open Hair Space. Sica and I caught up for an hour-long phone call earlier this week to talk about why they were moving to the suburbs. With Sica’s approval, here is that story.
Sica has dealt with a lot of issues in the last five years that might have caused other owners to throw in the towel. The salon didn’t have great access to parking – there was a lot in the back, but it cost $4/hour. “For my stylist employees,” Sica said, “That’s a lot.” But that didn’t deter Sica – they love Uptown and were wanting to stay in the area. Then there were the break-ins and the slow police response times, if they ever came. The public urination and more in front of the salon. The bullet hole through the window. But Sica seems to have accepted this as “just life on Lake St.”
The construction on Lake St. this last summer added to the challenges. The terrible noise just outside the salon’s window – the banging damaged things in the store. The lack of communication about the construction from the city, the county, and Metro Transit – “We got little to no information about construction updates,” Sica said. “Sometimes there would be meetings but if information was ever given it was past the time it could be helpful.” At one point, all roads going to the salon were closed, and employees had to have a hand-drawn map updated daily to guide customers coming to their store. Sica told that story with a laugh – they didn’t like it, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker.
The eventual dealbreaker for Sica was that they tried to move somewhere else in Uptown – many times – but no one would be willing to take them as a tenant. So they tried to buy a building outright in cash and were declined. “We’re really holding out for a restaurant,” the sellers would tell them. When I asked why, Sica said they thought perhaps because so many salons had closed in the area. “But we’re still here,” they said. “We’re not going anywhere! We want to be here.” Sica was frustrated by this because they feel more focus on bars and nightlife increases the perception that the area isn’t safe. “My customers see an address of a crime on Citizen and have told me, ‘That’s right next to my salon!’ so they don’t want to come. But that’s mostly during the night. During the day it’s dead.”
Sica told me their three main issues with being a small business in Uptown right now. I asked them what solutions they would like to see and am listing those along with my ideas:
- A lack of affordable commercial space. Sica said, “We have a set number of units for affordable residential housing, why don’t we do the same with commercial real estate?” This is a great idea and it’s worth exploring. If it’s not feasible, the city could support small businesses in other ways: encouraging smaller spaces, cutting red tape for developers, and/or, as I’ve been talking about, grants to small businesses from Local Government Aid. Minneapolis pays 3.5 times more to the state than what we receive back. We are the economic engine of the state – that ratio may have been fine before Covid, but now it needs to change. As a city council member, I will advocate for more funds from the state.Individual residents should also advocate for more Local Government Aid from their state representatives and senators.
- A focus on bikeability at the expense of parking. If you haven’t been to Uptown for a minute, it’s become significantly more challenging to navigate by car. Sica feels the removal of parking in the Uptown area is not supportive to local businesses; they’re not alone. “Our density doesn’t support the focus on walking and biking right now,” they said. “If we want walkability, we need things to walk to. Plus, we are an aging population. There are parents with kids. Not everyone is going to be able to bike around. The businesses in Uptown told the city how much bike lanes on Hennepin would be hard for business, but the city kept moving forward.I guess at some point you have to accept where the city’s priorities are,” they said.
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- Vehicle emissions are a huge contributor to the climate crisis – no one in Minneapolis denies that. I walk and bike as transit year-round – it’s one of the reasons I picked Ward 7 to live in. But what Sica is saying is absolutely true, and they’re not alone. We need to focus on all our community. I’ll be talking more about bike lanes and car traffic more over the course of this campaign – for now, know that I believe we must make intelligent decisions about how to help all people in our city move around.
- Not enough outreach.“You’re the first person to reach out to me – and you’re not even official,” they said (not yet! ). They suggested having a community liaison officer for Uptown. I support and would pro-actively work toward and with a Business Improvement District for Uptown, and having that outreach and connection is a key component to the BID. Sica was grateful for finding NextStage, which is a partnership for small businesses with the City of Minneapolis, but it sounds as if pro-active outreach from the city would have been helpful for the salon. If I’m elected, I will host forums for the Uptown, Downtown, Loring Park and Bryn Mawr business and non-profit communities so folks can begin to know their neighbors, share resources, and create strategic partnerships.
One thing Sica left with was a powerful message about Uptown’s future: “It will come back. I know it will. But it can’t be left to the small businesses to bring it back. My business coach reminded me of how much I’m doing: providing Narcan training to staff, all the extra clean-up and paperwork after break-ins, additional outreach… it’s stuff that salons elsewhere don’t have to do. And I don’t mind doing it, but it all adds up and takes away from the bottom line, and if a small business isn’t profitable, it can’t survive, and then it’s not helping the community at all.”
I’ve been talking to business owners throughout Ward 7 and the entire city, and Sica’s story is not unique. Commerce is a crucial part of our city, and we need a city council that can support both business and labor. Businesses are an essential component of creating neighborhoods and community. I was at the grand re-opening of the 19 Bar a couple weeks ago, and so many folks told me it was an essential part of the neighborhood – a safe place for the LGBTQ+ community since 1952!
Sica mentioned they were progressive politically. It is possible to be both progressive and pro-business. These unique, funky businesses make our city special. We want to keep them in Minneapolis. Supporting the business community will be a huge priority for me if I’m elected. We need a council member with vision to face challenges head on and bring our city into the future.
Open Hair Space is at a pop-up location at 3034 Lyndale Ave S until the end of March, after which point, they will be at 6445 Lyndale Ave S in Richfield. Sica made sure the new location was transit – and bike-accessible – bike lanes and the 4 bus route go there from Minneapolis, and there’s covered bike parking. Please check them out!
