MINNEAPOLIS — A series of recent events in Dinkytown is forcing leaders at the University of Minnesota to rethink their approach to public safety.
"Carjackings; I've seen car accidents because I live right on 4th Street. I've heard the shootings at night," said U of M senior, Ella Miller.
"Streets are swarmed with people. People are, you know, doing donuts; kids are just kind of watching stuff on top of the sign posts," said Noah Burton, a grad student at the U.
After facing mounting pressure from students and parents to do more to ensure public safety on campus, barricades and roadblocks lining 5th Street Southeast between 13th and 14th Avenues are part of the new Dinkytown Safety and Pedestrian Access Pilot Program.
The goal, outlined in an action update from the university’s Strategic Safety Advisory Committee is to provide safer streets for pedestrians, while keeping people away who intend to do harm.
"I do believe that making it harder to access the area could increase the chances of, you know, making stuff safer," said Burton.
In a statement, the university's Director of Public Relations Jake Ricker said:
"With staffing challenges facing both MPD (which has jurisdiction of these blocks) and UMPD, there's a recognized need to be creative and try new ideas. Hopefully infrastructure changes can relieve some of the burden of officers in this area so that they can better patrol both the campus and the surrounding neighborhoods."
"I definitely am hoping things do turn around. They’re obviously trying to handle it in other ways besides just sticking police straight in there and policing everything," said Burton.
As of July 28, the barricaded zones are along 5th Street Southeast between 13th and 14th Avenues Southeast, and 14th Avenue Southeast between 4th Street and 5th Streets Southeast.
They'll be in place every Thursday from 4 p.m. until Sunday at 10 a.m. for three weeks.
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