Balqiis Hersi was born in Somalia. Her mom would travel from Somalia to India for work as a designer. In the eighties, her entire family moved to India to escape the Somali Civil War. Growing up there, Balqiis fell in love with the patterns, colors, and prints used in Indian textiles. This love would stay with her and inspire Zizi Boutique.

Peer Pressure Fitness is a dedicated and goal-oriented neighborhood wellness hub that provides clients the necessary amount of motivation and inspiration to reach their targeted fitness and wellness goals. They service clients by optimizing the 8 Dimensions of Wellness while incorporating Minneapolis Culture to create an uplifting space that promotes personal health and community collaboration through Positivity, Energy, Equality, and Respect.

In 1977, MIGIZI was founded as Migizi Communications, Inc. with a goal of countering the misrepresentations and inaccuracies about Native people in the media. In the 1900s MIGIZI found its home base on Lake Street and shifted to focus on serving youth. Most of the students they serve live along bus lines and being on Lake Street makes their programs accessible for their community.

Diamonds Home Health Care at 2740 Minnehaha Ave has been successfully providing Medicaid-certified home care services to the Lake Street community since 2005. This female owned agency has gone great lengths to provide the best service to their clients including protecting confidential patient files, while bullets pierced through the front of their office.

For 7 years, Nicholas Zimet has been operating his acupuncture clinic at the corner of 4th Ave and Lake Street. During this time, Nicholas and his team have focused on providing relief from pain, anxiety, and women’s health issues. They have found strong success with chronic and difficult to treat conditions that have not been resolved with medicine alone.

Midtown Eye Care has served the community as a safety net comprehensive eye care facility that provides eye exams, contact lenses and wide selection of frames and urgent care services.

Elias Usso and his wife opened Seward Pharmacy in late 2019 with the goal to provide better, more personal care to his neighbors compared to what they’d get at large retail pharmacy chains. Less than 6 months after opening, COVID-19 slowed down the new pharmacy. In summer 2020, the civil uprising completely destroyed it, “Everything we had in here was totally destroyed. It was really painful to see it.”