…and tried to warn you that this exact thing was inevitable?
(Points thumbs at self).
This guy.
The Vomit Comet (aka Green Line) is a rolling assault and robbery laboratory.
The FOX 9 Investigators revealed that aggravated assaults on the light rail system, those involving a weapon or causing serious injury, numbered 59 through July 31 of this year. That is more than the 52 aggravated assaults in all of 2018, and 41 aggravated assaults in 2017.
Robberies and thefts are also on the rise with 384 incidents through October 28 of this year. That’s more than the 330 incidents in all of 2018 and 374 incidents in 2017.
“Sadly, Metro Transit’s own data reveals a transit system in crisis with a record number of assaults, robberies, and other criminal activity taking place on trains and at light rail stations,” said [Republican representative Paul] Torkelson.
In 18 months of riding the Vomet Comet to work pretty much daily, I think I saw transit cops a dozen times – and two of those were responding to assaults that’d already happened; essentially, they were crime janitors.
And that’s just crime on the trains; it doesn’t cover the spike in crime along the Green Line. I’ll be working on getting those numbers together for the five years since the Vomit Comet started bringing fare-skipping thugs to the Midway. It’s not gonna be pretty. ]
In the olden days, teacher put one sheet on the overhead projector, then laid another sheet atop it, giving us information in an easy-to-understand graphical format.
Can we get an overlay of low-income housing atop violent crimes? One set for each of the last dozen years?
Correlation is not causation, but I’m curious to know if spreading low income housing along the train line is somehow linked to crime spreading along the train line. A graphical representation would be interesting to see.
Anybody know how to make a GIF?
Who are you going to believe, Betty McCollum – or your lying thumbs?
(Betty helped “shoot down” a Shot-Spotter purchase for St. Paul, along the Green Line, for impugning the safety and security of the train.)
Embrace the vibrancy, fellas. Bask in the diversity.
The chop-chop in Atlanta is called MARTA.
Locals call it Moving Africans Rapidly Thru Atlanta. Yeah, it’s a gauntlet of assault and mayhem, too but y’all are the ones moving real Africans around rapidly. It’s a rip off.
The transit police hang out at Holiday at hamline and Marshall, not on the teain.
There are things called “buses.” Unlike LRT, bus service is scalable and portable — bus routes can be changed as user’s needs change, and buses can be moved hundreds or thousands of miles under their own power if needed.
The only reason to prefer LRT to buses is because it allows city planners to direct where citizens can live, shop, play, and work. Human beings making individual choices to improve their lives are the enemy of city planners. LRT is intended to make your life miserable, don’t expect it to do anything else
Now that this version of Agenda 21 has been around for a few years now, it would be interesting to see how far under water it is due to unpaid fares.
Last year, I believe that the Blue/Hiawatha Line, was running at an annual deficit of $1.4 million.
Is there any fare collection enforcement besides going to Twins games / events?
JK;
Not often. It used to be that if you get caught once without a ticket, your name was written down, allegedly to be installed in a database to catch repeat offenders. 2nd offense was only a $50 fine. Not sure what the Transit Cops do now. The last time that I rode the Blue Line back to the MOA from a downtown meeting last month, a bunch of teens that jumped on at Lake Street, almost crashed through the doors to jump off at 46th where three transit cops got on. My guess was that they were freeloading. Mark my words though. Within the next couple of years, the Met Council will spending another few billion to install Chicago/NY/DC style turnstiles and manned ticket booths.