Metro Transit Responds to Complaints About Lake St. LRT Station

Litter, graffiti, dirty floors and too many kids loitering around--these have become issues for residents who live near and use the Lake Street/Midtown light rail transit station in southeast Minneapolis--the third busiest station on the Hiawatha line.

Tonight, Metro Transit officials will get together again with residents to talk about the problems they've tracked over the past several months, the improvements they made and look at what's happening next.

The Corcoran Neighborhood Association's Assistant Director Eric Gustafson tells KSTP.com a small task force of a half-dozen residents have been sending in weekly reports to Metro Transit officials, ever since their first meeting with their top operations, police and maintenance people in early June.

He says they were told, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease," and encouraged residents to give them as much input as they could.  

Gustafson says Metro Transit admitted they have received complaints from one or two other stations north of the Lake Street station about similar issues.

The problems at Lake Street have been noticed by many residents who use the station every day to go to work. 

"They feel like they live in a safe neighborhood and then they walk to the station and it's a whole different ball game down there," says Gustafson.

Anne Bloomquist, a Corcoran resident, wrote in an August newsletter for the neighborhood about the problems.

She says the "areas of concern" include the litter in and around the platform and towers, graffiti, loitering youth, escalators out of service, and dirty floors and glass.

Metro Transit spokesperson John Siqveland says the Lake Street/Midtown Station is the junction between two of the top four most popular transit lines in the region--a place where many passengers are boarding and transferring to bus or light rail lines.

But they're working with the neighborhood to address their concerns.

He says Metro Transit Police Department added some weekend shifts, reallocating resources from spots like the Northstar commuter rail line during the middle of the day.

He says they've added high-intensity lighting around the station, washing equipment on the station level, and made "more active use" of the station's existing P.A. system in the lower vestibule areas.

Siqveland says a working group of Metro Transit members have also visited the station regularly for several weeks to note its appearance and determine what could be improved.

Next spring, he says their police department will add more cameras and video recording devices, an improvement that will be paid for with a federal grant.

And a few other changes, he says, will be made to the landscaping to discourage young people from loitering--for example, raising the retaining walls that are the kids sit on.

Gustafson says he hopes Metro Transit officials will continue the conversation with the neighborhood to make improvements.

Corcoran residents will discuss the situation with Metro Transit at 7:00 p.m. during the meeting of the Land Use & Transportation and Housing Committees at the Neighborhood organization's offices.

They're located at 3451 Cedar Avenue South.

For more information, call 612-724-7457.