Transit Crime

[HuskyGrad]

Do you have a release on that? I have a friend who's son is afraid to go into their apartment garage since their building was hit, and maybe seeing it will help them feel better.

There hasn't been a release that I know of. I live in one of the buildings and we received a letter from management confirming his apprehension. As of today the suspect is still in custody according to the Hennepin County Jail roster.

[mattaudio]

Do not get away on the train carrying a cash register. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... ister.html

[mamundsen]

WCCO is running a story right now about how cameras on buses and trains are able to help identify and catch criminals in transit crimes. Worth a watch online later.

[LRV Op Dude]

WCCO is running a story right now about how cameras on buses and trains are able to help identify and catch criminals in transit crimes. Worth a watch online later.

Metro Transit Cameras Capture Suspect Who Robbed Blind Man

[seanrichardryan]

WCCO headline implies bus stops and sexual assaults are somehow related:

Latest News
Mpls. Police: Woman Sexually Assaulted Near Bus Stop
January 21, 2014 3:50 PM
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/01/2 ... -bus-stop/

[FISHMANPET]

"Woman Sexually Assaulted Near Parking Space" would be just as accurate. She wasn't even walking to the bus stop, just toward it.

[PhilmerPhil]

"Woman Sexually Assaulted Near 4 Lane Speedway with Narrow Sidewalks"

[mplser]

"woman sexually assaulted near auto-oriented strip mall"

[woofner]

"Woman Sexually Assaulted Near Patriarchy"

[Viktor Vaughn]

How will light rail affect University of Minnesota campus safety?
http://blogs.mprnews.org/oncampus/2014/ ... us-safety/

During this past fall’s spike in robberies, campus police noted that many of those committing the robberies didn’t come from Minneapolis, but from metro-area suburbs.

And that was during a time when, as campus police Chief Greg Hestness says, the U has been “very difficult to get to. You really have to know how to get here.”

Kaler said:
“It will certainly improve access for everybody to the university community, so you might think that would make it easier for bad guys to get here. But on the other hand, I think the LRT will be an exceptionally poor choice for somebody who has committed a crime and is trying to get away. Because the stations are going to be well-lit, well-surveilled and well-policed. It would not be a good place for somebody to wait for a train while they’re holding something stolen. We’ll have to see how it works, but I think we’ll see a push and a pull there.”

[LRV Op Dude]

Riders Consider Other Travel Options After Metro Transit Bus Fights

[mattaudio]

Don't look at the comments.

[David Greene]

Don't look at the comments.

Those are some of the most important comments to read. We all need to understand the racial dynamics that (still) exist today.

[alleycat]

I took the 19 from 27th and Penn to Brooklyn Center Transit Center on a regular basis for more than two years until late 2012. I never had an issue like the fight, but disturbances did happen. Going toward downtown, as I do from time to time, can be worse. I prefer biking to the rest off the city for speed and sanity.

Before living in North I lived in Ventura Village and Stevens Square. They were equally diverse and neighboring East Phillips has just as much crime as Near North or Jordan. The 14, 5 and 19 more consistantly get out of hand compared to the 4, 18, et al.

I've hypothesized for a while that the very real crime issues on the buses in North and the suburban perception of urban transit killed the Bottineau Penn alignments and SWLRT's 3C respectively. The city (Nicollet), county and Met Council (Midtown and West Broadway) saw this and have proposed streetcar as the equalizer to preserve equity in the transit dependent areas of Minneapolis. This way the suburban crowd can feel safe on their pastoral LRT routes and urbanites will take the streetcar or LRT depending on destination. It's an expensive solution, but it allows politicians to save face in the event that serious crime did happen on LRT.

[ECtransplant]

Except the streetcars aren't going to be any faster than buses. They're more development projects than transit projects, with the exception of the midtown corridor

[alleycat]

Except the streetcars aren't going to be any faster than buses. They're more development projects than transit projects, with the exception of the midtown corridor

No argument from me there. I didn't say that the city's consolation prizes were equal to good urban LRT. Washington-West Broadway streetcar could be a boon for the city's tax base and a measurable improvement for its transit user due to comfort and stop spacing.

[Anondson]

"The nearly 1,900 robberies in Minneapolis last year played out in all areas of the city but a Star Tribune analysis found that eight of the 10 hot spots were near bus stops and light rail stations..."

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 87051.html

[FISHMANPET]

So, in actual transit perception problems:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commut ... nsit/8728/

But women, regardless of income, tend to have an additional factor: safety. In a 2007 survey, 63 percent of New York City subway riders said they'd been harassed on a train, and 10 percent reported having been assaulted. It seems safe to assume that most of those riders were women. Among those who merely witnessed harassment or assault on public transit, 93 percent reported that the victim was female.

I struggle with this (I'm male, by the way) because I'm trying to figure out ways to convince my (female) friend, who has absolutely zero tolerance for harrassment, to ride the bus. My wife has a little higher tolerance, and can put up with the occasional "hey baby" or ass grab, which is a sad reality when riding the bus even in the middle of the day (though I suspect it's better during rush hour because a greater majority of riders are serious people with serious lives to get to, rather than the vagrants that think it's ok to harass and grope women they don't know).

[mulad]

I think this is a more generalized problem, related to quality urbanism, and issues of economic equality -- not just something that affects transit.

I've noticed that women (well, younger white women anyway) aren't seen out and about on sidewalks in large chunks of the city -- Get just short distance away from the UMN or Uptown, and they pretty much disappear (aside from walking the dog or being out for a jog). That probably relates to urbanism and density a bit -- women feel more comfortable when there are other women around, I suspect.

One reason why I like rail services is that they tend to attract a much broader demographic, which probably also helps. The ridership of the Green Line is going to be significantly different than what is on the 16/50 today and will more closely match the demographics of the corridor (which is overall about 51% White, 25% Black, 14% Asian, 5% Hispanic, 1% Native American, and the remainder identifying as multiracial or other). Pretty amazing how much that gets skewed with typical bus service.

I'm hopeful that the recent "ban the box" law will help stabilize the economic situation of the black population by making it easier for them to get jobs after getting jailed for minor things by overzealous police, although that's just one small thing out of many that need to be changed.

[xandrex]

I think this is a more generalized problem, related to quality urbanism, and issues of economic equality -- not just something that affects transit.

I've noticed that women (well, younger white women anyway) aren't seen out and about on sidewalks in large chunks of the city -- Get just short distance away from the UMN or Uptown, and they pretty much disappear (aside from walking the dog or being out for a jog). That probably relates to urbanism and density a bit -- women feel more comfortable when there are other women around, I suspect.

One reason why I like rail services is that they tend to attract a much broader demographic, which probably also helps. The ridership of the Green Line is going to be significantly different than what is on the 16/50 today and will more closely match the demographics of the corridor (which is overall about 51% White, 25% Black, 14% Asian, 5% Hispanic, 1% Native American, and the remainder identifying as multiracial or other). Pretty amazing how much that gets skewed with typical bus service.

I'm hopeful that the recent "ban the box" law will help stabilize the economic situation of the black population by making it easier for them to get jobs after getting jailed for minor things by overzealous police, although that's just one small thing out of many that need to be changed.

This, indeed. Although sometimes even rail can't solve all the issues...

I have a friend who I went to the U with who now works there. She lives near Hennepin and Franklin, so she catches a bus to get to the U just a block or two away from her apartment. But next year she plans on moving in with her boyfriend in the North Loop and will not only be working at the U, but also taking night classes for a masters degree. Even though she's moving to a transit-rich environment where she could catch the Green Line directly to work, she is dead set on getting a park spot at the U because the idea of getting off the train at Target Field Station and walking four blocks while the sun is down to her boyfriend's place scares her.