MINNEAPOLIS -- Vintage landed on 13th Avenue NE a while back in the form of bologna, specifically, the store Fried Bologna Vintage.
The kickoff for business was to be a flea market extravaganza, until the city of Minneapolis got word and cancelled it.
Turns out flea markets are illegal in the city.
Laughable but true; flea markets are against the law in Minneapolis and, until late last week, any store selling "second hand goods" like a vintage shop couldn't locate within 1000 feet of one another.
"They were seen as negative stores, they were seen as bad to sell a reused item," city councilman Gary Schiff said. "This day and age, that doesn't make sense to anyone."
Thank goodness Schiff and some members of the council decided to do away with the old when it came to the aforementioned laws.
As of last week, the 1000-foot rule is gone. Minneapolis vintage dealers can finally do what every other city's merchants have been doing for years, open up near one another to create a vintage shopping district.
"If you have ever gone antiquing you know how great it is to have this cluster together, so the 1000-foot rule didn't make sense," Schiff said of the change.
And that change lays the groundwork for possibly doing away with the flea market ban but as early as next spring.
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