Local pharmacist reflects on rebuilding after business destroyed during 2020 unrest

Businesses on East Lake Street in Minneapolis were hit hard by rioting and looting after the death of George Floyd.

Grants have made it possible for many to open again.

Elias Usso, owner of Seward Pharmacy, said various grants will help him restore and rebuild. However, there is still some damage from the riots and looting.

Usso is finally getting back to business. He opened Seward Pharmacy on East Lake Street in late 2019. In 2020, his pharmacy was forced to close after getting destroyed following the death of Floyd.

A year later, he still has some anxiety that something could happen again.

"We didn’t even open for a year, and then we lost everything," he said.

But help, and hope, weren’t far from home.

"Neighborhood family and friends, they just came and helped us clean this up," Usso said.

Usso says neighbors helping neighbors is why his business is here today.

"Looking back, it was a very horrible time that we went through, as a business owner and what happened to George Floyd," Usso, who lives blocks from George Floyd Square, said.

"It still brings a lot of emotion, what happened, you know, remembering that a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck," Usso said.

He said as a man of color, he still feels the pain of what happened, and also gratitude for the start of change.

"I am very hopeful," he said.