By David Pierini staff reporter

and Cameron Downey staff intern

It was a regular occurrence for a customer from long ago to walk into Flora Westbrooks’ hair salon on West Broadway Avenue and say, “You’re still here!”

Westbrooks wonders whether she will ever hear this again.

Flora’s Hair Design, located for some 35 years at 921 W. Broadway Ave. was completely destroyed by fire in the unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd.

Flora Westbrook lost her West Broadway Avenue hair salon and two buildings she owned to fire.

“I lost every comb, brush and chair. My salon license even burned up,” Westbrooks said looking through a fence that separates her from the charred rubble of her shop. “I don’t think anyone from this community set this fire. They know my story, they know where I came from and how hard I worked.

“I don’t want to go out and look for loans. Why would I buy back what was already mine?”

Westbrooks’ shop was among more than 100 North Minneapolis businesses to sustain damage on the night of May 29. The West Broadway business district was caught in a wave of destruction that started in South Minneapolis and spread across the Twin Cities.

More than 1,500 locations were hit with damage, which ranged from broken windows and looting to complete loss from fire. By the time exact loss totals are tallied, government leaders, business groups and insurers say the damage could exceed $500 million.

In North Minneapolis, community efforts are underway to bring financial relief to businesses impacted by the unrest, particularly small independent shops operating on tight margins with little capital for emergencies.

Four local groups, the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition, the Northside Economic Opportunity Network, the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance and the Northside Funders Group have raised close to $3 million and will activate an application process within the next couple of weeks. That number may grow after recent commitments from Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Bank, both of which recently announced rebuild funds for impacted areas, including the West Broadway Avenue corridor.

Heavily damaged businesses like Cub Foods, U.S. Bank, Walgreen’s and AutoZone have committed to staying in the community, rebuilding thanks to comprehensive insurance and the profits of large parent companies.

Small business owners, like Westbrook, aren’t always able to afford robust insurance policies or make the kind of profits to aggressively save or invest.

“Prior to 2020, we were experiencing quite a few disparities,” said Felicia Perry, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition. “Compounding this, you have the additional traumas of COVID-19 and the recent uprising. It’s a lot for businesses to deal with.

“We are pooling our resources to figure out the impact and what it will take to make communities feel whole after a really difficult 2020.”

Perry also co-chairs a new community coalition, Minneapolis Forward, a group of BIPOC community leaders developing strategies and solutions to address the immediate needs of impacted businesses and residents and also actions to bring long-term economic transformation to impacted areas.

A unique journal forward for each business

Flora’s Hair Design: Westbrook put all personal savings into renting a space and buying the tools and furniture she needed to begin her hair salon. More than a decade later, her landlord sold her the building. She also owned a second building two doors down.

Westbrooks was already hurting from statewide orders for non-essential businesses to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With no income, she dropped the insurance on the two buildings she owned. Both buildings were destroyed by the fire.

Meanwhile, tax bills are piling up on land now impossible for her to make a living. A friend started a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $108,000 for Westbrook, who has not decided how or if she will restart her business.

“It helps, but sitting back, I have nothing. This is my Ground Zero,” she said. “I don’t know how far the money will go but if I can lay the foundation for a salon, there might be light at the end of the tunnel.”

Fade Factory: Up the road from Westbrook at 2415 West Broadway, the men’s barbershop Fade Factory is now a fenced off hole full of the charred remains of his business.

Fade Factory owner Trevon Ellis started renting a chair at the shop three and a half years ago and eventually bought the business from the retiring owner.

“I love cutting hair, and it’s not just about money,” Ellis told the investment website Grow. “Of course, I need the money to survive, but it’s about the interaction, adding to the community. Seeing people happy and uplifted.”

After a television news interview with Ellis went viral, a person started a GoFundMe page that raised more than $130,000 in donations. But Ellis doesn’t own the building and he and the owner are in a dispute over the division of funds, according to Grow.

He is looking at other spaces and currently rents a chair at a Brooklyn Park barbershop.

“I’m still lost every day,” he told Grow. “I don’t even know how to live my life day-to-day because it surrounded that shop. I literally cut hair seven days a week sometimes.”

7 Mile Fashion: This urban clothing and beauty supply store is owned by the Ahn family and operates in three locations with 30 employees total. The stores are separated by a few miles, but two of them are located in unrest hot zones and suffered heavy damage.

The South Lake Street store, within walking distance of the Third Precinct headquarters was looted and burned down. The other store, the Ahn’s first store, at 661 W. Broadway Ave., was also looted but repairs are underway for its reopening.

“Our own family immigrated from South Korea to the U.S. with $1,000 to start a new life,” the Ahn family wrote for its family on a GoFundMe page. “We tirelessly worked three jobs between two of us until we were able to open a small beauty supply store in 1989 in North Minneapolis with a lot of support.”

The GoFundMe campaign raised $8,429, all of which went toward payroll. The family suspended donations when it learned insurance would cover employee wages.

However, the Ahn’s insurance did not cover all losses and so a separate GoFundMe page is in the works to help the family rebuild the store destroyed on Lake Street. A man working outside the North Minneapolis store said it is scheduled to reopen sometime this fall.

Yuan Yuan: This Chinese restaurant at 1010 W. Broadway Ave. in the Hawthorne Crossings strip mall quietly re-opened its doors to serve take-out food.

Chang Zheng, whose restaurant Yuan Yuan was damaged during unrest, says he was happy to reopen.

When asked about the damages his restaurant sustained, owner Chang Zheng pointed with amazement to a boarded-up window, a security camera monitor, the bathroom door and walk-in freezer. Just 10-feet away, his next door neighbor, Family Beauty Supply, saw its entire inventory looted.

“We’ve been here for 15 years,” Zheng said. “I’m very happy to be back.”

The Moment and the Opportunity

George Floyd’s death sparked a conversation that goes much broader than policing. Systemic racism is slowly and finally being examined and talked about in a multitude of institutions: real estate, banking, government, media and schools, to name a few.

Floyd’s death brought a certain “hyper-visibility” to North Minneapolis, Perry said. and she is encouraged to see city leaders making way for community-led strategies and solutions that could accelerate long-lasting economic growth and sustainability.

On the philanthropy side, the Northside Funders Group is hoping to convince donors to build authentic relationships and make investments in the “natural assets” of North Minneapolis.

“We’re trying to help donors understand that yes, there are immediate needs around physical damage, but what makes the Northside so unique is it is an area of the city with a long history of divestment,” said Sarah Clyne, the group’s executive director. “It has a fragile small business ecosystem and now add COVID-19 and unrest to this whole other set of circumstances.

“This is an opportunity for a true transformation of North Minneapolis,” said Clyne.

North Minneapolis looks beyond pandemic and unrest for a lasting rebuild