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Minneapolis: good news and bad news
2021-Nov-24, Wednesday 07:08 pmI wrote earlier about Give To The Max day here in Minnesota. I participated this year, contributing a lot more than I usually do, figuring that people out there are in worse shape than I am. It turns out that the civic mindset is so popular here that the city of Minneapolis even won a title yesterday for being the most generous city (amongst the 130 biggest cities) in the USA. Cities were ranked on several factors like donated time and services. Sure, there are valid reasons to question the effective morality of charity campaigns, but overall I think Minnesota does it right.
That's cool.
The bad news, of course, is what I've been detailing on this blog for years already. A new thing now is armed carjacking. This map shows the recent carjackings. Yellow pins for 2020 (170 total) and red pins for 2021 (492 so far). For once, south Minneapolis wins over my north Minneapolis warzone. The map author says it doesn't count car thefts.
That map is still similar to the city's gunfire map. It doesn't matter when you check that map or what timeframe you use... my house will probably be in the middle of the thickest cluster of gunfire. My particular block is often "the eye of the storm" with no activity itself, just everywhere around it. A few days ago, though, I called 911 after hearing 16 shots about a block away. While on that call with 911, I heard another 4 or 5 shots about a half-block away. Sure enough, 2 people got shot a few houses away from me. Nobody died this time, but there are always so many bullets flying everywhere that random bullets in the house are a thing that happens here too frequently. You just hope that nobody happens to be in its path.
There's also the terrible noise. Hot rodding for many hours each night. And the surveillance aircraft. Both airplane and helicopter are used, and I often can't tell the difference. Every ten minutes, another low flying sweep in my area. For an hour or two. I lay in bed at midnight, wishing for sleep but counting the moments until the next loud droning pass of the aircraft.
While typing this blog post tonight, I've heard more gunfire. Happy holiday.
That's cool.
The bad news, of course, is what I've been detailing on this blog for years already. A new thing now is armed carjacking. This map shows the recent carjackings. Yellow pins for 2020 (170 total) and red pins for 2021 (492 so far). For once, south Minneapolis wins over my north Minneapolis warzone. The map author says it doesn't count car thefts.
That map is still similar to the city's gunfire map. It doesn't matter when you check that map or what timeframe you use... my house will probably be in the middle of the thickest cluster of gunfire. My particular block is often "the eye of the storm" with no activity itself, just everywhere around it. A few days ago, though, I called 911 after hearing 16 shots about a block away. While on that call with 911, I heard another 4 or 5 shots about a half-block away. Sure enough, 2 people got shot a few houses away from me. Nobody died this time, but there are always so many bullets flying everywhere that random bullets in the house are a thing that happens here too frequently. You just hope that nobody happens to be in its path.
There's also the terrible noise. Hot rodding for many hours each night. And the surveillance aircraft. Both airplane and helicopter are used, and I often can't tell the difference. Every ten minutes, another low flying sweep in my area. For an hour or two. I lay in bed at midnight, wishing for sleep but counting the moments until the next loud droning pass of the aircraft.
While typing this blog post tonight, I've heard more gunfire. Happy holiday.