The Midtown Greenway, a 5.5-mile biking and walking trail in South Minneapolis, is too dark in some places.
This was a key concern raised by the
Midtown Greenway Coalition’s crime-prevention task force, which recently studied the Greenway’s safety, according to Soren Jensen, who leads the organization. Jensen says the coalition’s Trail Watch, a volunteer group of bicyclists who patrol the Greenway nightly, tries to keep an eye on things.
But the group has been working to go beyond that to ensure safety along the path. “We wanted to see if we could come up with more ways to keep crime low in the Greenway,” he says. That’s what led the organization to form the crime-prevention task force a number of months ago.
To evaluate conditions along the Greenway, the task force members, armed with light meters, went out one night “measuring the amount of light in the corridor,” he says.
In the end, they found too many shady spots, going by national trail standards, he says. Of particular concern are “very dark stairs and ramps,” at some points along the trail.
Although the Greenway has a low crime rate, "When there have been late-night muggings, they have tended to be near the dark stairways.”
To get a better handle on the situation, the task force produced a Google map; it’s an internal document that pinpoints the worst places along the Greenway, in order of priority, he says. Soon, the coalition hopes to see more lighting installed and signage that lets people know they’re under surveillance on the Greenway.
“We have prioritized about 15 sites so far, mostly between Interstate 35W and Hiawatha Avenue, and will continue to roll out our rankings of dark spots as the city moves to fix them,” he says.
Source: Soren Jensen, executive director, Midtown Greenway Coalition
Writer: Anna Pratt