Is E. Lake Street safe? Owner of famed Minneapolis record shop cites crime for closure.

Hymie’s Records store owner Adam Taylor didn’t hold back listing the many crime problems he says led to him closing the nationally recognized vinyl shop on E. Lake Street in south Minneapolis.

It wasn’t just financial difficulties due to the rent being $4,000, “which is just absurd,” or the suburban and rural customers who didn’t return after the 2020 unrest following George Floyd’s murder, he said in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune after the record store’s closure on June 27. Taylor said he’s “suffered constant graffiti, almost constant shoplifting, a serious bathroom fire caused by a homeless dude and a cigarette” being held at “knifepoint,” two beatings and a “life-changing wrist injury after a fight with a meth head who was trying to rob me.”

“I have nothing left in my tank. I’m just exhausted,” said Taylor, who bought the store at 3820 E. Lake St. in 2019, just before the pandemic — another major financial blow.

Opinions were mixed about the safety of the stretch of Lake Street about a half mile from the Mississippi River bordering St. Paul. Interviews drew mixed responses with some finding Taylor’s problems relatable, while others were surprised, saying they have had no significant problems.

The store sat on a commercial stretch of E. Lake, which separates rows of tree-lined residential streets with single-family houses and duplexes. The neighborhood is officially called Cooper in the greater Longfellow community. The surrounding area was quiet Thursday morning, with residents walking to and from grocery stores, riding their bikes, or heading to a nearby bus station.

Brenda Ingersoll, owner of the cafe Milkweed, said she has not had problems with safety at her coffee shop, which occupies the same building as Hymie’s. She said she found Taylor’s comments “disturbing” and said it failed to take into account the difficulties of unhoused people. She also said the remarks came across to her as harmful to local businesses that took a financial hit after Floyd’s murder and the ensuing civil unrest and riots along Lake Street.

“East Lake has taken quite a beating, but we’re all trying to hang on, and so for him to just sort of throw us under the bus in his last gasp there was kind of disturbing for me,” Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll said the shop has had a “pretty wonderful couple years,” and that bigger disruption has come from construction.

“I think that living in any city, you’re going to experience some level of petty crime,” she said. “We tend to know our community very well at our coffee shop, including the unhoused.”

Aside from a police report for a break-in several years ago, Ingersoll said, she’s never needed police response. In more cases the cafe has had to call Hennepin County’s 24/7 Cope hotline for people experiencing a mental health crisis, she said.

Others were in agreement with Taylor’s struggles. Chad Schwab, a supervisor for Longfellow Market, said the store hasn’t been held up, but has experienced frequent theft and vandalism.

“There’s been shoplifts all the time, bathrooms are trashed, graffiti, panhandling,” Schwab said.

Asked if he’s sympathetic to Taylor’s decision to close because of the incidents, Schwab simply said, “Hell, yes.” He said it’s also become dangerous for employees who have to close up shop at night, sometimes young women, who are accosted by people as they leave.

Recorded criminal incidents within the vicinity of Hymie’s Records ticked slightly upward in 2023-2024 compared with the prior two years, driven primarily by property crimes and vandalism, according to Minneapolis police data.

Cooper has a relatively low crime rate overall and little in the way of recorded violent incidents. This year, most crime metrics are down in the neighborhood, following citywide trends.

Lake Street Council, a local nonprofit, has been working to improve public safety in the area, said executive director Allison Sharkey. That includes recently hiring a community safety navigator who works with business owners, community members and other nonprofits to connect them with resources.

Sharkey also highlighted the group’s Lake Street Lift initiative, which recently gave $250,000 to local organizations to provide neighborhood public safety services. That includes funding toward violence interruption work and street outreach programs. The nonprofit also offers graffiti removal services for business and property owners, Sharkey said.

Matthew Lerner, owner of East Lake Liquor Store, said while there are issues with crime along Lake Street, he doesn’t think it’s particularly bad.

“There are problems along all of Lake Street, but no different than some other areas,” Lerner said. “The Longfellow neighborhood is awesome, and we are grateful for a large number of loyal customers.”

Further west, at Kennedy Transmission, CVT & Auto, Beth Misner said there have never been any major issues.

“Sometimes we get somebody who walks into the shop and we have to keep an eye on them when the mechanics leave, but nothing crazy,” she said.

Two residents who live near Hymie’s were also surprised by the severity of crimes Taylor experienced.

Bill Lacy, who is 69 and lives down the street from Milkweed and Hymie’s, said he’s never had any issues with crime in the five years he’s lived there. He said the severity of incidents that Taylor had at his shop seems unusual for the neighborhood. Once, he recalled, he had to call an ambulance for a man who passed out drunk near his house.

“We live in a city — there’s a lot of people here," he said. “Yes, there are homeless people here, but I haven’t had any issues.”

About a mile west, several people who are homeless were gathered at the Lake Street Midtown light-rail station. One, 36-year-old Russ Boswell, said he thinks it’s unfair for businesses’ closing statements to call out homeless people without also calling for services to help them.

“I don’t think it’s fair for anybody to raise anything about homelessness unless they’re trying to help them get out from being homeless,” he said.

In a follow-up email, Taylor thanked the many neighbors he’s met along Lake Street. He further detailed that he would often be alone after dark at his shop when he closed, and that the store became a “magnet for bad incidents.” Still, he said it’s a “great neighborhood, and I love living there.”

“The positives have been all the wonderful people I’ve met, and all the fantastic customers I interacted with,” Taylor said. “This is a great community and I hope the hurdles it faces are overcome.”

Jeff Hargarten of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.