University of Minnesota wants Minneapolis to provide $3M for more campus lighting
MINNEAPOLIS – There's a new proposal to improve safety near the University of Minnesota – and it's all about lights.
Darkness was a plague for a reason, and you don't have to be a kid to be afraid.
"The last time I was afraid of the dark I was probably 5 or 6, and I'm afraid of the dark again," said U senior Eli Destiche. "It's scary. It's really scary."
His re-emerging reticence is based on reality: crime data from the Minneapolis Police Department's precinct for off-campus areas reveals staggering increases in robberies, assaults and gunfire. And while crime occurs all day everyday, it's mostly on weekends between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
The city is already installing new cameras, new roadblocks and beefing up patrols. But the U is now asking the Minneapolis City Council to approve nearly $3 million for new lighting.
"It's just not smart to have zero lighting with all of these students walking around who are just trying to get home with their thousands of dollars of laptops and books and stuff," Destiche said. "It's not smart."
The U's proposal to light up Dinkytown and the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood adjacent to campus with 170 new fixtures, plus 10 mobile light trailers.
Dinkytown businesses are certainly in favor, but they're wondering why there needs to be a special request for this. Qdoba owner Randall Gast pointed out problems Thursday with the lights that already exist.
"The City of Minneapolis is a proud city with many fine attributes and amenities, and this is the premier, top-ten premier University of Minnesota. Is this what we think the infrastructure should look like? I don't think so," Gast said.
The budget process is already underway and it has to be passed by the end of the year. What could hold this up? Not opposition to the idea, but sources inside City Hall telling WCCO that there's still friction between some city council members and the U because of its decision to sever ties with MPD after the death of George Floyd.
If the city council approves the new money for lights, the U won't be installing the systems. That would be up to Minneapolis Public Works, so there's no timetable yet on when the lights would turn on.
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