MINNEAPOLIS — The lights are on and the ink is flowing inside Ink Lab in Uptown Minneapolis. It’s the first day artists are back after someone deliberately started multiple trash fires.
“We went back into the shop this morning and did a thorough cleaning,” Erica Bessler said Friday.
David Dettloff, owner of Ink Lab, was finally able to view the surveillance footage that shows exactly what happened early Monday morning.
In the video, a man is seen walking up to a dumpster and looking inside before lighting it on fire. The large flames can be seen spreading rapidly, climbing the building and melting everything in its path.
“What struck me the most is how nonchalantly this guy comes back here and lights a fire,” Dettloff said. “It’s so easy to destroy a building and disrupt a lot of people’s lives.”
The fire left six people homeless, forced businesses to close for days and sent one man to jail.
Five waste fires were started by the same manaccording to a report from the Minneapolis Fire Department.
Rose Opstad lived in the building. We spoke to her as she gathered her belongings. Her home was declared uninhabitable.
“It was incredibly intense, very scary,” Opstad recalls. “All I saw was a hallway full of smoke and flames coming through the door.”
What makes the frustration of the people who own shops there even greater: AAn emergency homeless shelter could be located across the street.
The owner of InkLab fears a proposed shelter right out of his Lake Street store could also endanger people’s lives.
“If people like me and the business owners on this block continue to work hard to improve this area, with nice shops and good restaurants for people to come to, we can keep Uptown an exciting environment,” he said.
Dozens of people shared his views at a meeting earlier this month.
“There’s no point in putting an emergency shelter in the middle of a retail space. We wouldn’t do that in the Mall of America,” said one resident.
The developer behind the plan said it “will not cause harm or endanger the public health, safety, comfort or general welfare.”
Another planning commission hearing is scheduled for mid-August.
Until then, entrepreneurs in this vibrant neighborhood will be left with a number of pressing questions.
