Safety & Security

Prospect Park Block Clubs

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Compendium of CCP/SAFE Safety Tips

Ideas to Make Our Neighborhood Even Safer - Harrison Nelson, 2001

Block Connections Grant Awarded in 1999 - Andy Mickel

As the new Safety and Security Sidewalk Lighting is being installed in most of the residential areas of Prospect Park, here are some actions each of us can take to enhance the benefits of this improved lighting and make our neighborhood even safer:

1. Keep a light on near a window in your house all night (so it will appear to a would-be criminal on the street that someone is awake in your house and may be watching the street).

2. Take an evening walk around Prospect Park with two or three of your neighbors. Use a cellular phone to report any suspicious activity.

3. Get to know your neighbors, and learn who belongs in your neighborhood and who doesn’t. (Join your Block Club.)

4. Ensure that the paths to and from your home are well lit (motion-sensing lights, lights-on-timers or simply keeping your outside lights on all the time will work and is inexpensive).

5. Trim back tree branches and bushes that prevent your neighbors from clearly seeing a burglar breaking into your house via each door or window.

6. Make your house "look occupied" when you are away, by having a radio on and by leaving some lights on or using light timers.

7. Keep your doors and windows locked.

8. Secure easily stolen items such as grills, bicycles, tools and especially laptop computers.

9. To prevent or reduce the chance of your car being vandalized or stolen:

a) park your car in your garage,
b) If you can’t park in a garage, park your car on a well lit street and consider a car alarm,
c) don’t keep anything of value in the car (at least put it in your trunk),
d) also don’t put a blanket over "some stuff" you keep in your car (car windows have been broken by thieves who think there may be valuables under the blanket).

10. Contact Nicole Magnan (at CCP/SAFE) (E-mail: Nicole.Magnan@ci.minneapolis.mn.us) for a free Security Audit of your home and property. Her telephone number is 673-2874.

For the first time since the CCP/SAFE began promoting ways in which adjacent block clubs can connect with each other (building community again!), 2 PPERR neighborhood blockclubs applied for a $1000 grant to do an "original project" Collaborative Landscaping. Travis Emdin of St. Mary's Place-Williams Ave and David Kaar of the mid-Arthur Ave developed the idea to address a safety issue perceived by Glendale residents on Williams Ave.

Unlandscaped (wild) and tall vegetation (up to 10 feet) grows on the back boulevards on SE Williams Avenue of properties facing SE Arthur Avenue. Neighbors who park on SE Williams Avenue (primarily residents of Glendale) do not feel safe at night as there are so many potential hiding places for people lurking within this brush and vegetation. Our approach is to actively supervise willing and available neighborhood youth as a team, as well as enlist residents of Arthur Avenue to first clear, and then maintain, this area to remove these hiding places.

The two-phase project began in June and will end on Labor Day, 1999. Andy Mickel wrote a 10-page grant application including sections on: 1. Project Area and Maps; 2. Project Description; 3. Project Timetable; 4. Project Budget; 5. Project Evaluation; 6. About the CoChairs; 7. About PPERRIA; and 8. Letters of Support (from Darlene Edwards of GRO and Pam Wollum of the PPERRIA Safety and Security Committee). Andy attended an April meeting in NE Minneapolis to learn about the program from CCP/SAFE personnel after learning about the meeting at a March PPERRIA meeting.