Transit Crime

[angrysuburbanite]

Well said, I did a bit more digging and apparently some community organizations have already been helping/helped many of those riders over the past year or so, which I did not know, and is good to hear.

[DanPatchToget]

Going off of this discussion from February, I think that the willingness of lawmakers to shift away from the typical American "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" attitude and get much better and reliable funding to social services, and on the other end willingness from those who have issues to admit they have issues and getting help to fix those issues, requires a massive cultural shift equivalent to moving a mountain.

As was mentioned already this goes far beyond transit, and it's a shame that some believe punishing transit for factors outside of its control is the answer. Meanwhile with road crimes no one ever thinks cancelling road projects and reducing funding for roads is the answer, which to be clear that's not what I believe. I'm just pointing out the double standard.

Like many issues in our country, I think there's not enough interest from lawmakers to move away from just complaining about issues and actually implementing real and long-lasting solutions. They can feel free to prove me wrong though.

[DanPatchToget]

As a light rail operator there's quite a few nuisances from the public that irritate me, and one of the worst is using the emergency door opener, especially when the train isn't at a platform. Yesterday in the early morning two people got on my train at Lake Street, and as we're leaving the station for some reason they decide they didn't want to be on there anymore so they popped the door open and ran off into the night. When this happens it's an at least 2-3 minute delay because the operator has to get out, reset the door, and make sure no one is in between the couplers or off the platform. This process was a little longer because the first car was off the platform and the second car, which those jerks were on, was still on the platform, so I had to climb up onto the platform while also squeezing in between a fence and the train.

This occurrence isn't that uncommon, and unfortunately it's very easy for people to do and get away with. I understand the need for an emergency door opener for actual emergencies, but I think something needs to be done whether it's with our existing trains or a future Type 4 LRV. Perhaps having the same emergency door opener latch at each door, but when you pull it instead of it immediately popping the door open the train operator gets a warning that someone wants to open the door and the operator can either approve or deny it, and if the operator doesn't respond within a certain amount of seconds the door will open automatically.

[Nick]

I had crazy people acting erratically on my train cars at both 4:00 PM and 8:30 PM today. After a while it's really started to make me feel like I'm the one losing my mind.

Thank you for driving the train.

[mattaudio]

I hope someday once again the train will be safe enough for me to take my kids on a ride. They'd love it. I used transit all the time in the Before [2020] Times, and a few times since. At this point I'm not comfortable taking my family on the train.

[Bakken2016]

I hope someday once again the train will be safe enough for me to take my kids on a ride. They'd love it. I used transit all the time in the Before [2020] Times, and a few times since. At this point I'm not comfortable taking my family on the train.

As one who rides both the Blue and Green lines, I almost never have a problem on the Blue Line now. It's alway usually the Green Line. Though the Green Line had issues prior to 2020 as well.

[DanPatchToget]

Anyone heard of karenthecamera? They're the first house if you use the sidewalk from 46th Street Station that turns west onto 45th Street, and they want the sidewalk removed due to crime and anti-social activity going on that's been caught on cameras they installed on their property.

Not that they would care, but removing the sidewalk wouldn't remove the crime. At best the problem would just be relocated somewhere else, which would be a win for them, but for people using that sidewalk and not causing problems it means an extra 5 minutes to walk to/from the station.

[thespeedmccool]

Anyone heard of karenthecamera? They're the first house if you use the sidewalk from 46th Street Station that turns west onto 45th Street, and they want the sidewalk removed due to crime and anti-social activity going on that's been caught on cameras they installed on their property.

Not that they would care, but removing the sidewalk wouldn't remove the crime. At best the problem would just be relocated somewhere else, which would be a win for them, but for people using that sidewalk and not causing problems it means an extra 5 minutes to walk to/from the station.

Having looked at about a dozen videos on her Instagram, I can confidently say I'd be ashamed to be friends with someone like her. A ton of the videos are just young POC walking and doing nothing wrong (while she claims they're clearly on their way to doing some kind of crime.) The worst stuff she's captured is homeless or mentally ill people defecating outside. Gross to do, and gross to film it and then post it to the internet.

It's obvious Karen doesn't want to solve any problems, just push the problems away from her. I really don't have patience for people with that attitude who have decided to live adjacent to a train station.

(Granted, people shouldn't be defecating in public, but the solution is "get these people in homes" and not "keep these people in the neighborhoods where Karen thinks they belong.")

Ultimately, Karen's problem is that people she doesn't like use the sidewalk. We shouldn't be closing walking paths because people Karen doesn't like who uses them. Karen can move to Rogers if she doesn't want people walking on the sidewalk in front of her house.

[Mdcastle]

How people many people were pooping on sidewalks next to our train stations train stations when the decision was made to purchase the house in 2013? I mean, Light Rail used to be nice back then and I used to even ride it ocassionally when it was still nice. Maybe even she did too when it was still nice, hence her decision to purchase a house near the train statoin.

I guess pooping on sidewalks is expected and accepted behavior in Minneapolis now if wer're telling people to move to Rogers if they don't like people pooping on the sidewalk by their house.

[nBode]

I guess pooping on sidewalks is expected and accepted behavior in Minneapolis now if wer're telling people to move to Rogers if they don't like people pooping on the sidewalk by their house.

What a stupid thing to say. I can't believe you actually wrote that and hit post.

[Mdcastle]

It's almost like there's video evidence of people pooping on the sidewalk by her house, and another poster saying she should sell her house and move to Rogers if she doesn't like what's going on by her house.

[Wezle]

Obviously no one should have to deal with people pooping on the sidewalk or stealing their packages, however the problem is with the issue of homelessness and the opioid crisis, not with the train nor the sidewalk.

[mattaudio]

Seems like the issue is tolerance of extreme antisocial behavior. No, closing the sidewalk is not the right answer, but what is?
It's not sufficient to wave hands and point at giant systemic issues such as homelessness and addiction (as much as those are also problems worth solving).

[BikesOnFilm]

Two things:

1. It's not handwaving away those problems to correctly name them. Because if you don't name these larger forces, someone might be convinced that getting rid of the sidewalks or trains will actually fix the problem. And there are more than enough people who are willing to take those stories in bad faith and try to build a public consensus around it.

2. Maybe this is controversial, but I think spending so much of your one, precious life monitoring and screaming about things beyond your control like this is also extreme anti-social behavior, just a kind of it that is semi-normalized in the public realm.

Even if that person defecates in front of your house - yes, that's gross. I would be upset if that happened in front of my house too, but I wouldn't make it my entire life's purpose to get rid of the sidewalk over it.

[nBode]

wer're telling people to move to Rogers if they don't like people pooping on the sidewalk by their house.

Nobody said this except you. What thespeedmccool said was: Karen can move to Rogers if she doesn't want people walking on the sidewalk in front of her house.

Don't put words in people's mouths and please resist the urge to sensationalize.

[Mdcastle]

So the thinking is she'd be doing the same thing if people were just walking by not committing crimes as opposed to pooping in front of her house?

[wingedmolotov]

So the thinking is she'd be doing the same thing if people were just walking by not committing crimes as opposed to pooping in front of her house?

Yeah.
According to the original reply, "A ton of the videos are just young POC walking and doing nothing wrong (while she claims they're clearly on their way to doing some kind of crime.) [...] Ultimately, Karen's problem is that people she doesn't like use the sidewalk. We shouldn't be closing walking paths because people Karen doesn't like who uses them. Karen can move to Rogers if she doesn't want people walking on the sidewalk in front of her house."

[twincitizen]

I live a block away from here and use the 45th St entrance when I ride. After a conversation I had with a Metro Transit rep a couple weeks ago, I'm not too worried about that access closure actually happening. Definitely staying tuned to the situation though, just in case pushback is needed. I completely sympathize with the neighbor and take them at their word about the issues they're experiencing, but closing the sidewalk connection to 45th St is a non-starter. Frankly, I'm more interested taking the opposite approach and removing the fence entirely and daylighting the whole area so there aren't any places to hide in the shadows.

I'm not a daily rider, but when I do take the train or visit Venn Brewing or bike through the station to get to the other side of Hiawatha, this has been my observation: there are a lot of people (relative to pre-2020) hanging out at the station that are not promptly boarding trains or buses. Addressing the loitering issues at the station would likely help to address the quality of life issues that are spreading out around the station. Like the song says: You don't have to go home, but (if you're not boarding) you can't stay here.

For the amount of routes that Metro Transit has converging here, there really ought to be:
A. a security guard or police officer here most of the time or at least during the hours of day with the most issues.
b. a restroom (ideally located right next to wherever security/police would be stationed).

[COLSLAW5]

I like how they are rolling out more TRIP agents but the fact that we don't have them at the major stations at a desk or something and occasionally doing laps to report issues is crazy. Seems like a simple fix that many other agencies have figured out.

[Tom H.]

The overall lack of "on the beat" cops in American cities in general - whether on foot, horseback, bike, whatever - is always baffling to me. It also makes hiring officers of all stripes more expensive, because "one cop" actually means "one cop plus a $150k cruiser".