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Perceptions aside, I would be willing to bet that downtown Minneapolis has one of the highest violent crime rates of any major city downtown in America. I haven't found a source for comparable data from multiple cities to verify that. Please let me know if you have one.
Several cities, including Minneapolis, publish crime reports and/or maps. Having seen bits and pieces of data from different cities seems to support my case. Specifically, the number of robberies and shootings jumps off the page. Every city has property crimes and a few bar fights, but most seem to do a better job of keeping violent criminals out of the CBD.
Perceptions aside, I would be willing to bet that downtown Minneapolis has one of the highest violent crime rates of any major city downtown in America. I haven't found a source for comparable data from multiple cities to verify that. Please let me know if you have one.
Several cities, including Minneapolis, publish crime reports and/or maps. Having seen bits and pieces of data from different cities seems to support my case. Specifically, the number of robberies and shootings jumps off the page. Every city has property crimes and a few bar fights, but most seem to do a better job of keeping violent criminals out of the CBD.
A couple things:
First, part of the issue is that you'll find people disagree with precisely what the "CBD" of Minneapolis actually is. In a lot of cities around the country/world, the "bit with the tall buildings" is both the financial and commercial center, whereas in Minneapolis, you could argue that downtown proper is the former but not (anymore) the latter. It kind of reminds me of the City of London that way, where the bit with the skyscrapers is pretty much dead after 9-5 M-F. This is somewhat changing, with the North Loop revitalization and all the apartments/condos going up closer to Vikings Stadium, but it's not a linear increase. As far as the commercial hub(s), well you could argue there are 3 or 4 of those.
Second, I'm genuinely curious about those crime statistics myself, because while (like virtually every city) there's sporadic nonsense after bar close, it's always been my impression that most of the actual violence (shootings, muggings, robbery, etc) happens to the north of downtown. I've lived on the west end of downtown for going on 4 years and I've never felt more than "mildly annoyed"; certainly never felt my life was in danger.
@MidwestRedux - While it may take some digging to extrapolate results between cities, the communitycrimemap.com is a great resource for looking into crime in a locale. Minneapolis is one of the few cities in Minnesota that reports their crimes on this map, and overall, it's really interesting data to evaluate.
I took your assertions at face value and looked at Aggravated Assaults and Robberies in the Minneapolis metro area. What I found was that between January 1, 2017 - Today, there were 200 robberies reported to the MPD, and about 50 of those robberies (25%) occurred in Downtown West (First Avenue or along that area +/- 2-3 blocks), at or near bar close (12 AM - 3 AM). The other large set of Robberies (50+) occurred in North Minneapolis.
Outside of those robberies, the next high impact area was Phillips West.
The data is almost mirrored for Aggravated Assaults, except this time, North Minneapolis leads, followed by Downtown West, and then the Phillips neighborhood.
While the data is inconclusive, in the residential districts, it seems to present a pattern surrounding neighborhoods of Minneapolis which are predominately poorer communities. When you take this data and overlay the Minneapolis Shots Fired data, you'll find that 95%++ of the shootings and sounds of shootings are in North Minneapolis, with the remainder in the Philips area. There are very, very few (under 10 presently) reported sounds of shots fired or shootings outside of those pockets.
This data does indicate that the vast majority of Minneapolis is "safe". Meaning that, if you live in any of the communities beyond North Minneapolis or Philips, you will rarely ever hear about a shooting, and you will most likely not be assaulted. Even communities that surround the Philips area (e.g. Uptown) do not experience the same types of problems or incidents that occur in Philips. Communities that surround North Minneapolis (e.g. Near North) do not see or experience the same types of problems.
@MidwestRedux - While it may take some digging to extrapolate results between cities, the communitycrimemap.com is a great resource for looking into crime in a locale. Minneapolis is one of the few cities in Minnesota that reports their crimes on this map, and overall, it's really interesting data to evaluate.
I took your assertions at face value and looked at Aggravated Assaults and Robberies in the Minneapolis metro area. What I found was that between January 1, 2017 - Today, there were 200 robberies reported to the MPD, and about 50 of those robberies (25%) occurred in Downtown West (First Avenue or along that area +/- 2-3 blocks), at or near bar close (12 AM - 3 AM). The other large set of Robberies (50+) occurred in North Minneapolis.
Outside of those robberies, the next high impact area was Phillips West.
The data is almost mirrored for Aggravated Assaults, except this time, North Minneapolis leads, followed by Downtown West, and then the Phillips neighborhood.
While the data is inconclusive, in the residential districts, it seems to present a pattern surrounding neighborhoods of Minneapolis which are predominately poorer communities. When you take this data and overlay the Minneapolis Shots Fired data, you'll find that 95%++ of the shootings and sounds of shootings are in North Minneapolis, with the remainder in the Philips area. There are very, very few (under 10 presently) reported sounds of shots fired or shootings outside of those pockets.
This data does indicate that the vast majority of Minneapolis is "safe". Meaning that, if you live in any of the communities beyond North Minneapolis or Philips, you will rarely ever hear about a shooting, and you will most likely not be assaulted. Even communities that surround the Philips area (e.g. Uptown) do not experience the same types of problems or incidents that occur in Philips. Communities that surround North Minneapolis (e.g. Near North) do not see or experience the same types of problems.
@MidwestRedux - While it may take some digging to extrapolate results between cities, the communitycrimemap.com is a great resource for looking into crime in a locale. Minneapolis is one of the few cities in Minnesota that reports their crimes on this map, and overall, it's really interesting data to evaluate.
I took your assertions at face value and looked at Aggravated Assaults and Robberies in the Minneapolis metro area. What I found was that between January 1, 2017 - Today, there were 200 robberies reported to the MPD, and about 50 of those robberies (25%) occurred in Downtown West (First Avenue or along that area +/- 2-3 blocks), at or near bar close (12 AM - 3 AM). The other large set of Robberies (50+) occurred in North Minneapolis.
Outside of those robberies, the next high impact area was Phillips West.
The data is almost mirrored for Aggravated Assaults, except this time, North Minneapolis leads, followed by Downtown West, and then the Phillips neighborhood.
While the data is inconclusive, in the residential districts, it seems to present a pattern surrounding neighborhoods of Minneapolis which are predominately poorer communities. When you take this data and overlay the Minneapolis Shots Fired data, you'll find that 95%++ of the shootings and sounds of shootings are in North Minneapolis, with the remainder in the Philips area. There are very, very few (under 10 presently) reported sounds of shots fired or shootings outside of those pockets.
This data does indicate that the vast majority of Minneapolis is "safe". Meaning that, if you live in any of the communities beyond North Minneapolis or Philips, you will rarely ever hear about a shooting, and you will most likely not be assaulted. Even communities that surround the Philips area (e.g. Uptown) do not experience the same types of problems or incidents that occur in Philips. Communities that surround North Minneapolis (e.g. Near North) do not see or experience the same types of problems.
The problem with saying "Phillips" and "North" is that they are massive geographical areas. So to say "Beyond North" or "Phillips", what does that mean? based on crime maps and what I've heard, I'm told that North crime drops significantly when crossing Hwy 55 and again when crossing Basset creek. But isn't everything north of the tracks around the Basset area, technically "North"? Phillips is the same way. Some say that Greater Phillips is the area from 35w to 94 to Hiawatha to Lake. That is a significant chunk of south Minneapolis. Based on the crime maps, I don't think it's just west Phillips that is having the issue. East Phillips has issues as well (take a look at Bloomington Ave area). Stevens Square and Whittier also seem to have issues when reading the maps and Uptown has it's fair share of problems as well. Personally, I've been chased down the block in Whittier and it also in Phillips, and I never have even lived down there. At this point, I'm convinced that there pretty much isn't a safe place in south Minneapolis immediately south of 94 unless you live in Seward of west of Hennepin or south far enough to point where it doesn't matter (south of Lake seems to get better).
As for fun, I would think that just about any adult can find plenty to do downtown, depending on when you’re there and what your interests are. There are three major league sports facilities, all of which periodically offer concerts in addition to sports. For non-sports entertainment you have The Guthrie Theater, Orchestra Hall, The Cowles Center, and all of the venues in The Hennepin Theater District. There are hundreds of restaurants, a couple of comedy clubs, and numerous dance and music clubs. You can throw in about a dozen strip clubs for those whose interests run in that direction.
Traditional shopping is certainly not what it used to be, however there are several specialty shops in The North Loop. There is no cinema downtown, but a walk across The Stone Arch Bridge will get you to St Anthony Main. West River Road provides ample recreational opportunities along The Mississippi River.
As is the case with the downtowns of most cities, the vitality of Downtown Minneapolis shifts depending on the time of day and the day of the week. The Downtown West neighborhood is the CBD. It’s only about 0.5 square miles in size, but hosts about 110,000 jobs. For obvious reasons, this area is bustling on weekdays and fairly dead outside of standard business hours. On evenings, the crowds move towards the North Loop and the theater district. Late at night, especially on weekends, you’ll see increased activity near the clubs and stadiums.
When it comes to safety, there is a difference between criminal activity and the perception of criminal activity. While you might find some aggressive panhandling on occasion, random crime is uncommon downtown—or anywhere else in the city for that matter. There are some small pockets on both the north and south sides of the city in which localized violent crime occurs sporadically. However, even in those areas, the vast majority of violent crime occurs within a very small subset of the population which is engaged in other criminal behavior.
Downtown Minneapolis is a busy place, with hundreds of thousands of people moving through it each day. Large numbers of people coursing through small geographic areas will always attract some criminal activity. Ironically, it is the presence of those same people that make it relatively safe in regards to serious personal crimes. In short, anyone spending time downtown should use the same level of common sense as they would use in any other big city. If you do that, the chances of becoming a crime victim are quite small.
I am moving to MPLS soon as well, I know nothing about it. Surely I would like to meet people before I get there. Please let me know if you'd like to exchange emails?
A warning to those who try to make these "comparisons". The FBI itself warns not to do it. Why? Because there is no UNIFORMITY in the country for reporting crime. The laws don't even define them the same way. Scholarly studies MIGHT estimate differences, but these public data things simply report what is reported to them. The data is highly suspect. I'm going to put a map of reported crimes downtown here. You tell ME how "crime free" you think that is. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6h...ew?usp=sharing
A warning to those who try to make these "comparisons". The FBI itself warns not to do it. Why? Because there is no UNIFORMITY in the country for reporting crime. The laws don't even define them the same way. Scholarly studies MIGHT estimate differences, but these public data things simply report what is reported to them. The data is highly suspect. I'm going to put a map of reported crimes downtown here. You tell ME how "crime free" you think that is. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6h...ew?usp=sharing
Thanks for sharing that image. You do notice that the majority of those crimes are off of Hennepin (Downtown West)... I'm sure you also looked and saw the times that those crimes were committed; mostly after or around bar close. Downtown is greater than Downtown West. Take a look at the North Loop, Downtown East, Loring Park, or even the southern downtown area (by the convention center) -- you'll find a large disparity in crime (most of the crime is in Downtown West).
I agree that comparing city v. city is hard, because the many cities report data in different ways. Minneapolis's data is automated, so the majority of the crime that is reported in Minneapolis is accurate (if you click on any of the Minneapolis nodes, you'll see that the reporting agency is "Minneapolis Police Department").
Unless if you're willing to build your house like a fortress and never go outside, there's no such thing as being "crime free". Even in cities such as Edina, Wayzata or Plymouth, crime occurs. And, since Minneapolis is so transparent, you'll see that even in South Minneapolis (e.g. around Lake Calhoun/Lake of the Isles), there is crime occurring.
The best advice I can give is to use common sense when venturing out at night.
Too drunk to be walking around at/around bar close? Order a Lyft/Uber.
Friends abandoned you and you still want to keep going out? Again, order a ride to take you to where you're trying to get.
You can get all around Minneapolis (First Avenue to Uptown, Uptown to Northeast, etc.) for around $7 or less (~$10-11 when the fare increases).
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