MINNEAPOLIS - There are hundreds of mom and pop businesses in the city of Minneapolis and some of the owners of those are feeling a little uninvited by this entire Super Bowl experience.
So, they are taking matters into their own hands with a website called While You're Here.
What is it?
It’s a solid and lengthy list of all the local businesses and restaurants you can check out as a visitor - get it? - while you're here.
It’s put together by the Twin Cities Metro Independent Business Alliance, The Main Street Alliance and Chinook Book.
Their pitch? Experience the real Twin Cities while you are in town for the Super Bowl.
Why?
“We are quiet to them, we are not the ones they are paying attention to,” North Minneapolis business owner KB Brown said Monday.
Brown and others claim the city just didn’t do much to let the local businesses really be seen when the national spotlight made its way to town.
Danny Schwartzman runs Common Roots Café in Uptown.
“This city is about a bunch of small business owners across the city who are really working hard every day to make their neighborhoods great. Small businesses are the ones creating the jobs. We are not asking for subsidies. We are not going away next year, we are staying here and making the communities what they are and we want to see support for that,” Schwartzman said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he agrees with this push and said that in the future the city will do more to make sure they are involved.