Light rail and bus safety was a big issue when the 2020 Legislature convened in February. Lawmakers from both parties, as well as officials from the Met Council, all said something needed to be done about crime on and around Twin Cities transit.
Where the parties differed was whether the response would rely on more law enforcement or on using a new civilian corps to monitor trains and buses while also decriminalizing fare evasions and minor misconduct.
A legislative compromise that included some of both approaches was in the works when the pandemic hit. And so transit safety, as with many issues, fell away as the Legislature’s attention became devoted to reacting to the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. The prospects for addressing the issue became even dimmer after George Floyd was killed; aspects of the bills that once had DFL support no longer did.
And though there were two opportunities — one at the end of the regular session and one during the June special session — to revive the issue, both times it fell victim to partisan disagreements. Even now, with a July special session looming, the issue may have lost any chance of passing in 2020, with the new session expected to be dominated by another debate over Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency powers, a possible capital spending bill, a possible compromise on police reforms and more COVID-19 related bills.
“That ship might have sailed,” said Rep. Frank Hornstein, a DFLer from Minneapolis who chairs the House Transportation Finance and Policy subcommittee. “I’m not hopeful we’ll get a transit safety agreement before next year.”
A compromise emerges — and disappears
During the 2020 regular session of the Legislature, a compromise bill worked on by GOP Rep. Jon Koznick of Lakeville and DFL Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee incorporated some of each party’s priorities. It authorized civilian staff, to be known as “transit ambassadors,” to issue administrative citations that carried a first-time fine of $35. Currently, a ticket for fare evasion issued by a transit police officer comes with a $180 fine — akin in severity to committing an assault or driving under the influence.
[image_caption]State Rep. Jon Koznick[/image_caption]
The compromise also would have required the Met Council to craft a code of conduct, created a paid fare zone at stations where ticketless riders could be fined, beefed up lighting and security at stations and prohibited any reduction in the number of sworn Metro Transit Police officers. In addition, the proposal would have required mandatory bans from transit for anyone convicted of a gross misdemeanor (six months) or a felony (one year) if the crimes were committed on a bus or train or at stations.
Koznick said that compromise bill language recognized the “need for different policing techniques” by allowing for administrative instead of criminal citations. “I think it’s a good balance to have transit enforcement agents and task them a little bit different than what Democrats wanted, which was more of a feel-good type person handing out maps,” he said. “But we also have to have consequences and restore law and order within the transit system, or it’s just not going to be a viable mode of transportation and it’s not going to help these rioted areas become strong commercial areas again.”
[image_caption]State Rep. Brad Tabke[/image_caption]
After the death of George Floyd, the policing aspects of the compromise bill that were once acceptable, if reluctantly, to both DFLers and activists became unacceptable, said Tabke. In response, during the June special session of the Legislature, he introduced a bill that contained only the creation of the civilian transit agents and the administrative citations.
At the same time, Walz submitted a pared-back supplemental budget request that included $3.7 million for Metro Transit security improvements and language that went further than the Tabke bill, proving money for “additional transit safety improvements and fare compliance measures on Metro Transit light rail and transitway service, including an administrative citations program, additional law enforcement staffing and enhanced monitoring.”
But like nearly everything else, the supplemental budget became immersed in the politics of how to respond to COVID-19, with Republicans arguing against any new spending in the wake of the economic impact of the pandemic and DFLers arguing that much of the money would come from the federal CARES Act. In the end, Walz’s budget request was rejected by the GOP-controlled Senate.
Hornstein said he doesn’t think the Koznick-Tabke language had much support in the House GOP caucus beyond Koznick, even before the law enforcement sections were removed, and it would have even less now. Meanwhile, the GOP-controlled Senate has done very little work on the issue. “Clearly, this was not something that Republicans as a whole were ready to embrace,” Hornstein said. “There is virtually no chance the Senate would have taken that language.”
A missed opportunity?
Both Hornstein and Koznick thought the failure of the issue this year is unfortunate, given the conversations about policing and the need to rebuild communities damaged in the civic unrest that followed the death of Floyd.
“You would have unarmed personnel who would be charged with checking fares but they would be trouble-shooting all sorts of issues,” Hornstein said of the transit ambassadors idea. They could try to connect homeless people to housing and those with mental illness to services, he said, as well as provide extra sets of eyes and ears for uniformed transit police.” (The concept was also supported in a letter to Met Council leadership last week calling for reforms in response to the death of Floyd and the unrest that followed.)
[image_caption]State Rep. Frank Hornstein[/image_caption]
Koznick agreed. “I think the issue has quite a bit of importance and as we look to the second special session,” he said. “Transit will play an important role in those areas becoming economically viable again. With the lack of confidence in public transit and public safety in those areas, it’s gonna be near impossible for some of those small businesses in those districts to become as vibrant as they were starting to become.”
But Koznick also thought the chances were slim for anything to happen this year. “I’m not sure this program would make the cut,” said Koznick on whatever budget language Senate Republicans would go along with. “It could. At a minimum, I think it could be a good win for transit if we at least were able to establish the administrative citation program and put some dollars around it down the road.”
The Met Council supports the Walz budget language and has also been trying to respond to safety issues via its current budget and authority. Among the initiatives Metro Transit put in place last year were increasing transit police hours; using plainclothes officers on trains; creating homelessness action teams; coordinating with nonprofits to reserve shelter beds for referrals; increasing staff on the agency’s “text for safety” program; and purchasing new cameras for trains that can be used to dispatch police officers.
“We have the full attention of Metro Transit and the Met Council on this issue,” Council Chair Charlie Zelle said in February. “We’ve heard the concern and we don’t have all the answers; this is our start. We are absolutely committed to returning safety and a culture of welcome to all of our operations.”
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]“We have the full attention of Metro Transit and the Met Council on this issue,” Council Chair Charlie Zelle said in February.[/image_caption]
The answer to all of this is to provide housing and social services for homeless people.
Simply kicking off the train and writing the tickets doesn’t fix anything. And giving up on enforcement and letting them p**s and s**t on the train all day will just chase the paying riders away.
The same is true with the camps in the Minneapolis parks. Letting them stay isn’t a solution at all – its just chaos. But kicking them out just moves the problem elsewhere.
Its gonna take some investment. Spending some real money. Drug treatment. Mental health treatment.
There are going to be a lot more homeless people before Covid runs its course. Not just the chronically homeless, but people living on the edge who fall off.
I agree; however the metro area does have quite a bit of subsidized housing and chemical health treatment available, especially when compared to other states. One of the issues is(and I strongly encourage policy makers to work/visit shelters and meet with residents and staff) people often have to choose to go into treatment or a residence. It takes a high bar to commit someone in MN even for a 6 month voluntary commitment where they are offered services. The other issue is that the metro area then draws people from other areas that don’t have that level of service. If they cannot provide safety, then they have thrown money into a system that is not going to be fully used and it is especially unfair to those who can’t afford a car and rely on public transit.
Lisa, the Section-8 waiting list in Minneapolis is now four to six years long. Minneapolis is in dire need of affordable and subsidized housing.
I am from an upper middle class family. However, due to severe abuse at school when I was a teenager, and then again in college. I never learned to protect myself or fight back. I thought what was happening to me was normal “kid’s stuff”, so I never told my family.
This happens to others.
Anyway, my condition worsened in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. I was unable to work and today require the assistance of public health and Social Security funds as a result of a poor constitution and having worked since age 11-years. I truly understand the situation of those on the edge.
It isn’t as simple as saying that the Twin Cities has inexpensive housing. It doesn’t have any more housing attainable by very low income people. We need more housing. Last year, the mayor of Minneapolis, who I knew through my work over the past four decades in the DFL, arranged to have old buildings modified to house indigent people who were in tent-cities in Minneapolis.
This isn’t happening to just poor people. It is happening to people like myself who grew up in a very beautiful and well-groomed neighborhood who at one time attended boarding school in Europe. People often enough fall of the edge. I am one who did.
Fortunately, I am an intelligent and patient man who has role models at the local, regional, national and international levels of community leadership in the arts, science, military, law enforcement, medical, legal, religious, political and business communities. I have a pattern of life that I hope to live, even in financial poverty. I keep my apartment looking good. I maintain good hygiene, and I teach students with an average of three graduate degrees in the health sciences and STEM communities how to speak fluid English. They are professionals from other countries, but my income is not so high.
There are others like myself. The fairy-tale world that some ascribe to “white privilege” is not a reality for some of us. I dreamn’t of becoming a diplomat. I lived in Europe and Central America and was at one time fluent in three languages other than English. But now, I live among poor immigrants from East Africa. Many of these folks quickly save money and buy homes. Others are in chronic poverty, like myself.
My parents haven’t substantially assisted me since I was in college over thirty years ago. That is no longer their job. I am an adult and must do my best to move out of poverty.
Sadly, the state officials in charge of legislating grants haven’t made grants for people with disabilities who wish to start proven businesses. The recent round of legislation ruled out grants for people with home-based businesses — the kinds of businesses that many disabled people must operate (not multi-level marketing schemes that few people excel at, but retail and wholesale businesses which can operate using Amazon.com and Amazon.com prime and similar platforms).
In 2015, 601,000 Minnesotans were disabled. The recent figure is thast about 10.9% of Minnesotans are disabled. They require public assistance and public transportation.
As a result of my problems with rising mass transit, which is detailed in a later comment, below, I am stuck in my apartment. I have never owned a car. Yet, I attended Macalester College and University of Minnesota given the hard work I established for myself in my senior year in high school which put me on the honor roll and into community volunteer service with a political party in Minnesota.
Our transit and legislative authorities much think hard and long about what is actually needed for commerce and tourism in this state and allocate more dollars and smart designs to uniforms represented by people riding mass transit. My former county commissioner, Peter McLaughlin, was passionate about public transit. So many other men and women who I’ve known have given to this mission — but it has fallen apart with lack of effective, professional and engaging law enforcement officials on the trains and buses.
A man who I once met, Bob Dylan, sang, “Times, they are a’changing.” Legislators have a moral duty to look into how life in Minneapolis actually is for many of our professional and working class riders. The businesses stewarded by my dad and his colleagues, and by friends and acquaintances, and others, require that we have clean conveyances.
Perhaps the new special session in the coming week will see change among those who refuse to listen. It is either that or we vote them out of office. They know who they are. They were recalcitrant in the last session. It is time to “man-up” to responsibilities of being state leaders.
Provide free housing. I expected you to say that. I would agree with providing temporary housing as part of an intense drug treatment program. Last year the city provided housing but allowed drug use to run rampant. This year, a nice person opened his hotel to the homeless during the riots, and within days the drug trade flourished. So he had to kick them out. They moved to Powderhorn Park, where within days there were 3 sexual assaults, one involving a minor.
Either these people get clean or they go to jail as soon as they commit a crime. This city has allowed this to go on far too long. The Twin Cities is turning into Detroit.
The DFL wanted to get rid of police on light rail a long time ago. They did essentially stop enforcing people to pay to ride. And then crime became commonplace. So for those of you who think police departments should be defunded/disbanded, this is a good example of what happens when you do exactly that.
This city is going to hades in a handbasket. I move September 30 and I am thankful for that. If you don’t think people with money are moving out of the core cities, your nuts because they are. My realtor told me after the riots/looting, the price of my house just increased by 30K. People are willing to drive now. Mass transit takes a big hit with crime and Covid
I am not in Minneapolis anymore, but I’ve lived in many cities with public transit, and I’m not happy with tolerance of bad behavior in the least. As a liberal, I probably resemble many conservatives when it comes to solutions for public transit safety.
That said, the rest of your comment seems to be nothing more than your attempt to take take advantage of the situation to poke liberals in the face with a sharp stick over an issue that you long ago made your mind up about. You don’t actually care about solutions.
‘Progressives’ do not need me or anyone else to ‘take a poke’ at them and assign blame here.. They do a fine job of doing that to themselves with every step they take, and at every turn..
Now, the sometimes weepy, and often petulant ‘kid’ mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey is asking former Minneapolis mayor, Sales-Belton for advice? Really?
Explain the explosion of For-Sale signs going up all over Minneapolis right now.. I lived in the Diamond Lake – Lake Nokomis area for 35 plus years. ..I know why.
I have lived in Minnesota for almost 50 years, and this is my last year here. I never thought I would have to move on..
Good Luck to all!
“Explain the explosion of For-Sale signs going up all over Minneapolis right now.”
That’s an easy one to answer: It’s a fantasy. New for-sale listings in Minneapolis are down from last year, while home prices are up slightly. Houses are also selling faster, at least according to Realtors who aren’t vested in telling frightened sellers what they want to hear.
“This city is going to hades in a handbasket. I move September 30 and I am thankful for that. If you don’t think people with money are moving out of the core cities, your nuts because they are.”
Betsy, do you have any actual evidence of this?
Her realtor told her! Never mind that the cities have been rapidly adding population in recent years, its her realtor!
To effectively address this growing problem, they would have to openly identify the root cause – and WHO are the culprits and usual suspects, which they will not do..
These people are cowards, and Minnesota is drowning in denial as a result.. It has been for years..
In a few more years Minnesota will become the next Detroit, but on a state-wide scale.. The effects will then be irreversible.
And, this is just one of the symptoms connected to this multifaceted train-wreck ..
I will gladly debate any and all of these people in-studio, and on air – on camera – any time they wish.. ..There will be NO TAKERS.. Please feel free to pass the invitation on to all of them..
What a pity..
I’ve never been so ashamed of Minnesota and far too many Minnesotans before. Now ‘The 30 pieces of Silver’ crowd has swamped the Good Ship Minnesota, but good..
I’m guessing that “turning into Detroit” is a regular talking point on Fox News and right-wing media.
If you care to actually understand the problems with Detroit, the comparison with Minneapolis is not particularly accurate or useful.
When Obama was President, it was all about Chicago. Now, it’s Detroit.
I’m sure the racial composition of municipal government does not in any way drive this imagery.
I was talking about all this brewing in Minnesota, and its connection to the Dearborn/Detroit mess on my radio program from the last 90’s to the late 2000’s..
Obama wasn’t President then.. Just an FYI..
Minnesota has been committing collective suicide for decades… It’s really a shame.
Unfortunately, I do understand the multitude of problems, which remain unattended to for decades, and that which caused the Dearborn/Detroit area to devolve in to the hell hole it became.
I wrote about it for years, and spoke of it for years on my talk radio program as well.. ..I also predicted then, that this would eventually happen to Minneapolis/St.Paul if we were not diligent, and careful..
I believe that the – then – Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick is still serving his most recent 28 year sentence in Federal Prison.. And, he was just one of the symptoms, then and now..
Yea, I ‘get’ Detroit.. I also ‘get’ the Twin Cities, and other brewing problem pockets throughout Minnesota as well..
Detroit? We’re almost there..
That just isn’t true. Minneapolis is subsidizing outstate Minnesota. Democrats in the metro have to work hard to keep the Republican parts of Minnesota afloat. Republicans don’t understand economics so they can’t figure this out.
Alright, let’s hear it: who are the “culprits and usual suspects”?
Ask the KSTP on air reporter who almost lost an eye recently per an attack on the LRT while riding to the station..
It is this sort on Minnesota denial, which is the main foundation for this massive problem – and the huge increase of crime and barbaric violence we are facing today..
But, by all means, keep denying..
After he was arrested, the man who assaulted the reporter went on an anti-gay tirade, and explained that he attacked him because he perceived the reporter as gay.
So, yes, I agree that anti-gay bigotry is a huge problem, and that violence can result. We need to stand up to the bigots who promote that kind of hate.
What are we denying? Please be specific.
I don’t see any point in making a comment thread here about Robert Corrillo and “challenges” to debate. I have thus far seen no comment of any real substance from Corrillo regarding the transit system. Duplicating talk radio in our comment threads is probably a waste of time, much like listening to talk radio.
all of this inflammatory talk by people who have never used metro transit.
I’m not sure who your comment is directed at, but I used to take the light rail to and from work every day. I stopped riding because l got tired of riding in train cars that are used as toilets. The people who are dismissing the safety issues on mass transit are NOT the regular users.
Really?
I used to ride the NYC subway system subway and the ‘L’ for decades..
I get it.. Believe me, I get it..
And, all of the replies here are coming to all of you (below) from a ‘person of color’ as they now say today.. That would be Me..
Two words: Republican Senate.
Exactly. A few more words: incompetent, corrupt administration.
I no longer feel safe or welcome on public transit. There are rarely officers **in uniform** to police evening ridership after rush hour.
I was on my way to a training meeting for those of us who were interested in learning to educate others in financial literacy and sell policies and products to interested parties. I was wearing a very nice suit and London Fog trench coat that I received as a gift.
I got on the Greenline at the west end of University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus and was riding to Snelling Avenue to catch an A-Line. There was an odor on the train which was not very conducive to a feeling of cleanliness.
I moved from one chair to another, and to the other end of the car, making my stay there with attempts to sit in three or four different seats. On two occasions, I began to smell the odor of human feces on a service that a friend of mine worked to market in line with his earlier activities with local commissioners.
Eventually, I got to Snelling and University avenues, and got on a clean A Line bus bound for West County Road B and the Har Mar Mall Shopping Center where I would walk two blocks to my office.
I went into my office and sat down, realizing that I had a foul odor on me from the train. People began to steer clear of me.
On my return home, a young man in patient robes and socks, in 36 F weather with no shoes, was scrounging around the floor looking for cigarette butts. He was wearing a hospital identification bracelet and appeared to not have showered or bathed in weeks.
A day later, our office manager called me to say that I was not to come in if I smelled so horrible again. I’d offended a number of my colleagues and co-students with the odor of human feces on my clothes which transferred from the train between 6 p.m. and 6:40 p.m. moving eastward.
Now, I am not willing to put up with poorly policed mass transit vehicles where people without scruples, excessively poor hygiene and other significant anomalies such as odorous public transit vehicles and people who should be supervised or redirected by professionals in uniforms which suggest professionalism, service and propriety — not akin to an intimidating or brutal appearance that police uniforms offer today as a result of bare-bones design.
I would like to see more people in uniform on vehicles at all times to ensure that people will not put their wet footwear on the seats…so they will not smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs while in the cars…and who will render aid to those few who are truly mentally and intellectually incompetent and in need of care and supervision so that they will not “odify” the cars with a horrible stench, continue to yell at passengers, or intimidate or annoy even Army Rangers and U.S. Marines who may ride, or evacuate themselves in some way on vehicles otherwise intended to ensure a safe, welcoming, and hospitable environment to local and international travelers alike.
This would never be tolerated in Singapore, one of the fastest growing cities and economies on our planet.
We ride for access to our workplaces, places of education, our homes, and for various forms of commerce. We should be protected from the most base or sad stories which bring with them hazards.
I am sharing the raw truth of what it is like for people on some routes at various times of the day. The general population should know about this and speak up, and leaders in our community who started from scratch as I did should know about these oddities and unwelcoming and discomforting aberrations on public conveyances. We are paying for these services for the convenience of both simple transportation and commerce, as well as for tourism.
Change is a must. Legislation and funding are a must.
.