Let's Be Careful Out There? (2009)

 Originally posted as a Facebook Note April 14, 2009.

Police substation at 1501 1st Av SE (Source: kcrg.com)

Cedar Rapids, or my section of it, is undergoing a bit of a crime wave. It may not be much by big city standards, but police calls in the 1st Ave area (10th St to 19th St) were up in the first three months of 2009 by 35 percent over the same period in 2008. Moreover, they were 35 percent higher in 2008 than in 2007. A few weeks ago, a Cedar Rapids police officer, Tim Davis, was severely beaten by a suspect, and remains hospitalized. A Coe student was robbed at gunpoint in her car one morning. An apartment in the Mound View area experienced an armed robbery. Coe students have been assaulted by thugs on A Avenue. And these are just the ones I know about.

Maybe it's the accumulation of stories, or maybe I'm getting older, but I'm feeling rather querulous about walking to work and back, which inevitably takes me through this neighborhood. I've been walking or riding my bike most days since I started teaching at Coe in 1989, and have never had any worries about the commute. I always felt a lot of the stigmatization of the area around Coe as the "ghetto" stemmed from overreactions by small town Iowans who had never been through, say, the Garfield Park area of Chicago.

So I made time on Easter weekend to attend the Mound View Neighborhood Association's monthly meeting Saturday morning 4/11. The meeting was not heavily attended, as is usually the case after high-profile crimes, so maybe alarm is not particularly high.

The one speaker was Lt. Chuck Minx, representing the Police Department. He described efforts the police have taken and will take. For several weeks the police have added personnel in the 1st Avenue area, by using overtime as well as officers borrowed from other agencies (including BATF and the Linn County Sheriff's Office). This has coincided with a decline in crime reports, which may be due to the increased personnel or just the colder weather.

Nevertheless, at an additional cost of $22,000 per week the city cannot sustain this effort for long. Moreover, the weather is sure to improve sooner or later, which means the likelihood of increased criminal activity. So the police have undertaken three steps:

• adding a gang interdiction unit
• adding a position in their crime analysis unit
• better coordination of "intelligence" with schools, juvenile probation officers, and adult corrections

Besides this a number of initiatives have been undertaken in the neighborhood:

• Businesses on 1st Avenue are restricting alcohol sales after a certain point in the evenin
• The city hopes to have a "community governance location" including police and other agencies within 30-45 days in a vacant storefront on 1st Av. and 15th St (kitty-corner from the Road Ranger).
• There is an effort to begin a neighborhood watch/reporting program known as "MAD DADS"
• The police are enforcing laws that have previously not been enforced, such as jaywalking, in hopes of increasing interaction with dangerous people as well as reducing disruptive behavior
• Coe College has offered to buy the house at 1430 A Av NE--which has become something of a thug hideout--possibly by 6/1... probably Coe will tear it down

Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. there will be a community meeting at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, organized by the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission. The flyer said "Join a community dialogue about current violence and police presence in specific areas of Cedar Rapids. Let's discuss how we can work together to solve problems." The meeting seems to be occasioned by people who feel the police's anti-jaywalking crackdown is harassing them. I can't attend the meeting, but I hope the rising fear in the neighborhood, and the reasons for it, will be acknowledged. Personally, I'd rather be harassed by police than beaten up by thugs.

There are other fears afoot besides physical safety. Coe competes for students with schools like Central, Cornell, Grinnell and Luther, which are located in small towns. To the extent that Coe's location is perceived as dangerous, we will be severely disadvantaged and our very existence may be threatened.

A PS about jaywalking: The week after spring break, I encountered two groups of youth while riding my bicycle home from Coe about 5 p.m. They were walking abreast down the middle of 15th St., one group between A Av and 1st Av, and one group between 2nd Av and 3rd Av. They took no notice of a middle aged man on a bicycle, thankfully. I think it is this behavior the police are after, rather than the occasional person darting across 1st Av in the middle of the block to get to All-Stars. Nevertheless, All-Stars customers are probably best advised to use the crosswalks for the time being!