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Katherine Kersten tells an encouraging tale of citizen activism and a city initiative against crime in the StarTribune today: The Grocery Store Task Force.
Rocco Forte of Regulatory Services explains the fundamental insight behind the Task Force. “We quickly figured out if a store had 400 police calls, there’s a nexus between that and other problems there,” he says. “We decided to find out all the reasons the property was a magnet for crime, and deal with them in a single comprehensive action.”
Tired of "convenience drug stores" (like the Big Stop) and the damaging effects on the Jordan neighborhood in North Minneapolis, Deb Wagner and other neighbors started picketing the store and garnered publicity — and later city officials created the initative. It's had a dramatic effect.
By 2002, residents launched weekly, sign-waving protests across the street from Big Stop, and wrote a letter to the governor documenting intolerable neighborhood conditions.
Still, nothing changed.
Then, on April 4, 2006, the city shook off its paralysis and revoked Big Stop’s license. Overnight, police calls in the neighborhood plunged.
The change didn’t stop there. In the next 14 months, the city closed seven more trouble-prone stores in other neighborhoods. Three of the stores together were responsible for nearly 1,600 police calls in 2005. In 2007, those three locations had 53 calls.
And other cities are taking notice:
Today, other cities are calling to learn the secret of Minneapolis’ crime-fighting success. Toledo, Ohio, for example, recently launched a program modeled on the Grocery Store Task Force.
Wagner is overjoyed at her neighborhood’s newfound peace. “The day the city closed Big Stop, our neighbors just emerged from their houses. I actually saw a woman planting flowers. All this past summer, we celebrated in our front yards.”
A win-win for everyone. Kudos to Deb Wagner and other activists for getting the clean-up started. |
