Star Tribune
Metro Transit expands fare inspection efforts to bus rapid transit lines
Metro Transit is taking fare compliance efforts to its bus rapid transit lines.
On Monday, police officers, community service officers and Transit Rider Investment Program (TRIP) agents carried out an “educational operation” at the Brooklyn Center Transit Station as they asked riders to show proof they had paid for their trips and kicked off the agency’s next phase of cracking down on fare dodgers.
“We don’t want to see you pay fines, we want you to pay fares,” said Metro Transit Police Chief Ernest Morales III.
The agency in December began a concerted effort to conduct fare compliance checks on the Blue and Green light-rail lines. In the months that followed, non-sworn community service officers and TRIP agents have issued nearly 1,200 citations to riders who didn’t pay their fares. But only 38 people have paid the $35 administrative fines so far, said Leah Palmer, interim manager of the TRIP program.
Violators have 90 days to pay the fines.
Metro Transit has 12 unarmed TRIP agents who are contracted with Allied Universal Security Services and plans to hire up to 12 more to fully staff up and cover the expansion onto the rapid bus lines.
The agents in their royal blue jackets check to see if riders have paid, but also interact with passengers who misbehave or may need to be connected with social services. The agents were added in February to provide an increased official presence on light-rail trains as part of Metro Transit’s effort to beat back crime and make riding transit safer.
The agency is down 68 police officers, Morales said. By using TRIP agents and community service officers to handle fare checks, officers can respond to more serious crimes, he said.
TRIP agents began riding the C and D lines Monday. Both lines begin their routes at the Brooklyn Center Transit Station. The C-Line follows Penn Avenue and Olson Highway to downtown Minneapolis. The D-Line follows Emerson, Fremont and Chicago avenues to the Mall of America. Some riders on Monday simply skipped the payment machines on the platform, but were ushered off the bus and directed to the machines.
Monday’s event was also aimed at introducing riders who struggle to pay their fare to the Transit Assistance Program (TAP). The program allows low-income earners to get bus cards that allow them to ride for $1, which is below the regular bus fare of $2 during nonpeak hours and $2.50 during rush hours.
About 10 people signed up for TAP on Monday, said program coordinator Andrea Kiepe as she manned a table inside the transit station.
“We are helping people who are not able to afford the fare and qualify for the reduced fare,” Morales said.
The district’s attorney and three board members advised against a policy that mandates reliance on Book Looks’ ratings. In a statement, the attorney said the language in the policy would “arguably violate the state law by supplanting the library media specialist’s professional judgment with an external rating system” since Book Looks does not “appear to have any professional library credentials.” The attorney also cautioned against using the site because of its perceived “ideological perspective,” which could “run afoul of the First Amendment.”
Book Looks was started by Emily Maikisch, a former member of Moms for Liberty. A representative with Book Looks did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Book Looks site says it is not affiliated with Moms for Liberty or with any other groups but says it does “communicate with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values.”
That’s one of the reasons St. Francis Board Member Amy Kelly said the board chose Book Looks.
“We’re red here,” she said at the Nov. 25 meeting, adding that district policies should reflect the community’s priorities. “We’re not always going to be on the same page, but I know we’re conservative. [Community members] don’t want the stuff in the library.”
So far, the district has removed “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and “Out of Darkness” because of their Book Looks ratings, said Ryan Fiereck, the president of the St. Francis teachers union. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” had gone through a review committee, which deemed it appropriate to keep in the library, he said, and “Out of Darkness” was set to be reviewed by the committee before the new policy was approved.
Fiereck said he’s heard from union members and community members who disagree with the board’s policy revision.
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber is challenging the federal government’s plan to idle the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, a minimum-security facility that is among seven across the country slated to close due to aging infrastructure and staffing challenges.
Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, on Wednesday called the move “quite misguided. The motives behind this decision do not appear to be reasonable or sound and I am disappointed by the way the announcement was rolled out.”
But many of the facility’s approximately 90 employees may find themselves without a job, since only 15 are expected to be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, about 70 miles away from Duluth, according to a letter Stauber sent Tuesday to Colette Peters, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Stauber was quoting job estimates from union officials, who were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
It’s unclear when the Duluth prison’s operations will cease. “To inform the employees they would be out of the job through an impersonal letter right before Christmas is far too insensitive,” Stauber wrote, noting he will work with the incoming Trump Administration to reverse the decision.
More than 700 inmates currently incarcerated at the Duluth facility will be transferred to other prisons.
The all-male Duluth prison camp, located on a former U.S. Air Force base, has “aging and dilapidated infrastructure,” including several condemned buildings contaminated with asbestos and lead paint, according to Bureau of Prisons documents obtained by the Associated Press.
While the snowflakes, holiday lights and cold temps suggest otherwise, the season does not begin until the winter solstice on Saturday, Dec. 21.
The winter solstice is the precise moment when the sun appears farthest south in the sky. This year’s solstice is at 3:21 a.m. CT in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
It marks the shortest day of the year, with the fewest hours of possible sunlight and the most hours of darkness.
With days set to lengthen, the winter solstice is often seen as a time of renewal in different cultures.
In Minnesota, there are several winter festivals and wellness-related events taking place to help commemorate the season.
“Since pagan days, solstice has traditionally meant the ‘year as reborn,’ with ancient and modern Scandinavians fusing it into the longer ‘Jul’ or Yule season,” according to the American Swedish Institute, which holds a popular annual event each winter solstice.
Here are a handful of solstice events happening around the Twin Cities:
The Bell Museum: Celebrate the sun’s “rebirth,” and observe the sun through telescopes outside the museum from noon to 2 p.m. Other winter programming including a signs of the seasons exhibit and winter walk are ongoing.
