Public Safety

The Midtown Exchange lies at the heart of one of the most innovative and successful community crime prevention efforts in Minneapolis. Chicago-Lake has benefited from the coordinated efforts of residents, business owners, prosecutors, and members of different local law-enforcement agencies over the past several years, helping to turn a crime-challenged area into one of the region's most dynamic centers of private and public investment. 

Phillips Weed & Seed, the Franklin Avenue Community Safety Center, and neighborhood organizations have in recent years been complemented by special initiatives such as the Chicago Lake Improvement Project and the Chicago-Lake Crime Workgroup. Alliances of residents, businesses and public officials, these groups cleaned up the Chicago-Lake area and developed crime-deterrant strategies that have dramatically lowered low-level, "quality of life" crimes by repeat offenders. 

Today, the Phillips Police Probation Partnership, (P4) has expanded this collaborative strategy of crime prevention, creating a special enforcement zone from Chicago-Lake eastward to Bloomington-Lake. 

Together, these efforts are widely credited with enabling a spike in investment in the central Lake Street corridor. A successful Midtown Exchange redevelopment has also been a powerful catalyst for further neighborhood crime reduction and has joined the organizations in collaborating to prevent crime and promote community and economic development.