By Sonja Orban
The City of Minneapolis wants more people to walk in the City. They have passed ordinances and made investments to help get people to walk more.
When I was a kid, I walked everywhere. I was a latch key kid here in Minneapolis. As long as I had my dog with me, I was allowed to go anywhere I wanted. I knew every inch of the River valley and it’s trails. I spent whole days at Brackett Park by myself. I explored parts of the railroad track before the Greenway was made.
My kids have never walked one block to the park by themselves.
Why?
My kids and their friends have had to hit the floor in their own living room before, while cars zoomed past with guys with guns hanging out of the windows, third-world style. It makes the question, “Why don’t you let your kids walk to the park?” seem out of touch and fantastical.
Pondering the question also made me realize how hemmed in and squeezed we have actually become.
I don’t take my kiddos biking on the light rail trail because we are bounded by the Franklin and Lake Street stations where there are large numbers of drug users.
I don’t bike my kids along the greenway to visit their grandma or Brackett Park because of the tents between Hiawatha and 32nd Ave, with drug users and drug dealers.
I don’t walk them or the dog to Mini Park because the 24th street footbridge is blocked.
I don’t take them to play at East Philips because you never know when there’s going to be a shoot-out on the Cedar Ave corner.
That leaves our back yard, a simple answer for most people.
The kids haven’t played back there unsupervised ever. You can’t when there’s a giant drug house in the middle of the block with upwards of 20 people in it on the east side and a second drug house on the west side. Thankfully after 3 years of hard work by the MPD, both buildings are under new ownership.
But to get back to the point about walkability… I tend to alter my routes with my kids based on where I’ve most recently seen the most needles broken glass and trash. I was talking to a neighbor a few days ago who was telling me these same strategies almost verbatim. It’s nice to have confirmation that other folks are reduced to the same behaviors and I’m not crazy.
I am often trying to keep track of which shootings happened where to determine how to choose a route to and from school with the kids, and whether to walk or drive. I wish the citizen app was still linked to official sources in real time. I know it wasn’t always accurate, but at least you could see whether it was a gun or a knife within 15 minutes of an incident. At least it used to give a probable cause for why yellow tape is everywhere preventing you from turning onto your own block to park in front of your own house.
I am trying to keep track of the ever accumulating list of sex offenders, and staying updated on new ones every time they move into the area. The stack of fliers of their pictures and addresses is getting ridiculous.
I am keeping track of potential riot triggers and the color of who died recently, in order to predict the severity of the protesting I may encounter.
It’s a lot to remember, just to go outside. Surely going outside can be made simple again. Neighborhoods can be made safe and child friendly again. Folks are working on it.
There was encouragement from the city and the Park Board for parents to get out and occupy the parks. The slogan that a busy park is a safe park is true. Especially on soccer days. We need more parents finding each other and building trust with each other for play group benefits.
AIM patrol breaks up fights and helps people day and night.
The Jesuit Nuns are fearless and amazing. Just the sight of them is an automatic de-escalator.
The volunteer prayer walking groups make measurable change.
We need more help for people with addictions.
We need to prosecute drug dealers.
We need to do all the basic nosy awkward inconvenient things that it takes to get to know our neighbors and build trust. (Or charming creative graceful things if you’re a natural extrovert.)
There’s nothing convenient that is going to suddenly make our culture and community safer. Now isn’t the time to give up and move. Now is the time to reach out to neighbors and occupy the great outside together. What if we gave ourselves and each other permission to occupy our own blocks. We can literally take steps to make change.
The article was dated today 19 Jan and did not mention ICE once as a reason to not walk around outside in Mpls. I sure would not like these guys appearing at an intersection I am hoping to drive or walk through!
Did I miss something?
Sure, that’s an issue, but not the one Orban is writing about. As we’re learning, state and local governments have limited authority when it comes to federal law enforcement. Street crime in Minneapolis, however, is well within the purview of both Minneapolis and Minnesota officials.
Your experiences echo mine (and, I suspect, those of may Minneapolis residents). For decades I’d tell friends from elsewhere that even the “bad” neighborhoods in Mpls weren’t so bad. But by the time we moved out in 2021there were almost more “no go zones” than there were places I felt comfortable.