MINNEAPOLIS — The Burger King on West Broadway in North Minneapolis is boarded up, graffiti tagged and with a raggedy tarp dangling from the marquee sign.
"Yeah it would be nice to not have it boarded up," said Gabrielle “Luckie” Brown as she walked past the building.
It's been that way for months. The restaurant closed more than a year ago.
The same goes for the Burger King on Nicollet Avenue in South Minneapolis.
"It hurts the community. Because now you have an elephant sitting there hoping somebody comes and invest in the property and says OK, let's get this back going," said Anthony Davis, who works out at the YMCA next to the South Minneapolis location.
Even though Burger King now wants to re-open the two locations with a new franchisee, the city of Minneapolis will not allow it because of the city's "no drive-thru" ordinance.
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When the city council passed the ordinance in August they grandfathered-in restaurants like the Burger Kings that already had drive thrus.
But since the buildings sat empty for more than a year, the Zoning Board of Adjustment ruled they now have to follow the new rules.
That leaves some people baffled as to why the city would prefer to keep the boarded up storefronts over cleaned up and operational restaurants.
"The city needs to be quiet. For real. They need to open that back up," said Annie Hudson.
"You have people with handicaps who don't want to get out of their car. Cold weather like this in Minnesota. Some people have kids in the car. So to me, it is a very inconvenience," Davis said.
The city also heard from supporters of ordinance, who say the drive-thrus create traffic dangers for pedestrians, noise, and pollution from idling cars.
The fast food chain's leases last another 15 and 21 years, and Adam Velarde, the Chicago man who was trying to re-open the restaurants, say they will remain in their current boarded up condition as a result of the last franchisee going bankrupt.
Burger King argued to the city the bankrupcy is the reason the buildings have been vacant for so long, and that the city should not consider them "abandoned."
City council member Jeremiah Ellison says a corporation that allows their restaurants to turn into an obvious blight in these neighborhoods will "find very few sympathies here."
Burger King has not appealed the city's decision and has until Monday to do so.