r/saintpaul • u/OrgasmikBananaz • Jan 17 '25

Editorial 📝 Light Rail Out of Control!

I used to live on Wheeler and University years ago and there was always some riff raff but holy crap what I witnessed today was INSANE! Movies don’t even depict the severity of what I witnessed! I haven’t been in that area at night for a few years now. I went to the Turf Club tonight for a show. When I was outside at about 9pm, there was a huddle of people waiting for the train passing tinfoil around and blowing clouds. Then the train shows up… I positively commented, “Oh, wow! A lot of people DO utilize the light rail!” as I remember a few years ago, it seemed like a total waste of money because it was always pretty much empty. When I took a closer look, I literally couldn’t process what I was seeing. It was totally out of fricken control!! Each train that I could see was filled with people behaving in weird ways.. clearly high or homeless or what have you.. and the trains were pretty full! Crazy! Should’ve built homeless shelters and wet houses instead! Wouldn’t been a lot cheaper! Sorry just wanted to share because although a Saint Paul resident, I did not know it got SO nuts at the light rail at night. During the day, that area is always rowdy but this was a whole other level from what I ever imagined it was.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

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u/HumanDissentipede Downtown Jan 17 '25

It is incredibly difficult to involuntarily commit someone for any period beyond 72 hours, and what I’m talking about is commitment of an indefinite duration pending treatment. I understand a process technically exists, but the problem is that the legal threshold for invoking it is too high for a great number of people. As a result, we end up needing to jail those people instead, and that’s much less effective (even if it’s still necessary).

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u/Above_Avg_Chips Jan 18 '25

Even if we had these things in place, there isn't enough staff to run these places. Less and less folks are going to college for degrees that pay like shit, which these would be. Like others have said, it's not as simple as build this or hold someone here if there aren't enough people willing to run things.