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Opinion

For Today’s Open Thread, Let’s Talk About Businesses You Started Supporting During Operation Metro Surge

As we do every Friday, we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

10:53 AM CDT on March 27, 2026

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The ICE invasion made us reconsider how we connect to our communities in so many ways. And one important thing many of us learned is which businesses are just kind of there and which actually connect us more deeply to our neighbors.

Many of the latter have been among the most vulnerable over the past few months. And realizing this had helped us shop more deliberately.

Over the past few months, I've become a regular at La Casa Market, down the street from me on 38th & Nicollet. I've been getting (incredible) burritos from the in-house restaurant, El Nuevo Cinco de Mayo, and even some basic groceries from the store itself. I'm still a little intimidated by the range of meats in the butcher shop, but I'm learning.

So my question for you today is, what new businesses did you support this winter, and have you continued to support them? What new discoveries did you make? Or are there businesses that have always been in your circuit that you feel like you interact with differently now?

As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your Open Thread, after all.

And to kick off your weekend, here's a song that's about business. Kinda!

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