Cities Want To Return To Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit Crime

Cities Want to Return to Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit Crime.
- The New York Times 6/6/22, 9:06 PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/us/public-transit-crime.html
Cities Want to Return to Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit

Crime.
Crime rates on trains and buses are up in some of the nation’s biggest cities, one more barrier for downtowns trying
to rebound.
This article is part of our Daily Covid Briefing
By Julie Bosman, Sophie Kasakove, Jill Cowan and Richard Fausset
Published April 25, 2022 Updated April 28, 2022
To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
CHICAGO — For months, Anna Balla, 47, tolerated the unruly behavior she says has become commonplace when riding
the “L” downtown: smoking, harassment and even a stranger’s uninvited use of her shoulder to vault himself into a
spot in a crowded Chicago train.
But it was a ride in March that made her swear off the trains completely. At a busy stop in the heart of the Loop during
rush hour, she saw a young shirtless man yanking a woman and hitting her with an empty beer bottle as she cowered
and screamed on the platform. Ms. Balla bolted from the packed car and fled to the street.
“I was just worried that someone was going to pull out a gun, or if the cops arrived, it would become a shootout,” said
Ms. Balla, a museum registrar in Chicago. “It had that feel to it.”
Just as a number of major cities are trying to lure people back to formerly bustling downtowns, leaders are confronting
transit crime rates that have risen over prepandemic levels in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia
and Los Angeles. Earlier this month, a shooting on a subway train in Brooklyn injured 23 people. In other cities, stories
of violent assaults, muggings and stabbings on buses and trains dominate the evening news and worried conversations
in neighborhood apps.
Low ridership has left many passengers saying they feel more vulnerable than before. In Philadelphia, the number of
certain serious crimes reported on public transit is higher than before the pandemic, and in New York about equal to
previous levels, even though ridership in both places is significantly lower. In other cities, there are fewer crimes being
reported than in 2019, but the crime rate is up because there are so few passengers.
The crisis on public transit systems threatens the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic: Restoring
confidence in subways, commuter rail and buses, officials say, could help rescue local economies from two years of the
doldrums, encourage more workers to return to urban offices and make tourists comfortable moving about cities freely.
In densely populated places like Chicago and New York, where public transit is essential for millions of people, the well-
being of the system can feel like a proxy for the city itself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/us/public-transit-crime.html Page 1 of 10
Cities Want to Return to Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit Crime. - The New York Times 6/6/22, 9:06 PM
Mayors, transit agencies and police departments are wrestling with ways to reduce crime and restore the confidence of
commuters, but the fates of public transit and downtowns, experts say, can be intertwined in complicated ways: If more
people return to public transit as they go back to offices and shops, trains can feel safer; yet if transit systems feel
unsafe, people are reluctant to go back to the downtowns that hollowed out amid Covid.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced heightened security and additional police officers for Chicago’s transit
system. Mary Mathis for The New York Times
Four Chicago police officers responded to a report of a stolen backpack at a C.T.A. station. Mary Mathis for
The New York Times
In Chicago, where the nation’s second-largest public transportation system served an average of 800,000 riders on
weekdays in March, crime on the city’s trains and buses has spiked this year — and even before the pandemic, serious
crime was rising on public transit. Last month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced heightened security and additional
police officers to address fears from riders.
“It’s one of the most important things we can do to actually change the perception of the city overall,” Kevin Ryan, the
vice president of security for the Chicago Transit Authority, said of safety on the public transit system. “It’s the first
thing a lot of people who are coming into the city see. It’s the lifeblood of a lot of the underserved or poorer communities
that don’t have private vehicles who rely on this. It’s key that the C.T.A. is a safe system.”
The number of crimes reported on public transit in Chicago is about half what it was prepandemic, he said, but
ridership has also fallen by about half. The drop in riders on many public transit systems is essential to the rates of
crime on those systems: In Los Angeles, the raw number of crimes recorded in 2021 was lower than in the years before
the pandemic, according to data provided by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but
because the number of riders plunged, the rate of crimes per ride was higher.
In other cities, like Philadelphia, actual incidents of certain crimes on public transit have been mounting throughout the
pandemic. In 2021, SEPTA police recorded 86 aggravated assaults, up from 46 in 2019. Robberies increased to 217 from
118 during that period. Crime numbers from the first months of 2022 indicate a slight decline in incidents of aggravated
assault.
The challenges are not limited to transportation, said Jamie Gauthier, a City Council member in Philadelphia, but part
of a broader trend of rising crime and violence across the city.
A subway shooting this month injured about two dozen people in Brooklyn. Hilary Swift for The New York
Times
An increased law enforcement presence in a subway station in New York. Hilary Swift for The New York Times
“We have an opioid epidemic and we have a housing crisis,” Ms. Gauthier said, “so the things that we’ve been seeing in
the city, writ large, have also migrated into our public transit system.”
Part of the rising worry about crime, experts said, may reflect changing perceptions by commuters, many of whom at
least paused their usual trips on buses and trains during the pandemic. The prospect of going back to public transit has
left some people assessing safety in ways they might not ever have considered when daily commutes were a given.
Adding to the tension for some passengers was the rollback of mask rules on public transit in many cities after a judge
in Florida struck down federal mask mandates on airplanes and public transportation.
Christopher B. Leinberger, an emeritus professor of business at George Washington University who studies urban
spaces and transit, said the most effective way to reduce violence on public transit systems was to get more people
back to riding them. “Having lots of folks from all different incomes riding mass transit is the best way to suppress
crime,” he said. “Obviously the police have a major role to play, but it really comes down to having people, lots of eyes,
on different people.”
Long before the pandemic, several public transit systems were already challenged by funding problems, high
maintenance costs and stagnant ridership. Then came the virus, which set off a sudden drop in passengers amid
lockdowns and closures, starved transit agencies of revenue and raised questions about the fate of some systems. Now
the shaky returns, spurred in part by hybrid office work, and the rising crime rates in some systems are extending that
uncertainty.
In Los Angeles, the crime rate on the county’s metro system has increased over the course of the pandemic, adding fuel
to long-burning debates on policing, homelessness and mental health.
“Most of our issues on Metro are dealing with people who are unsheltered,” said Hilda Solis, a Los Angeles County
supervisor who is also chair of the Metro board. “So it’s more of a housing problem than a law enforcement problem.”
The Hollywood and Vine station, where a woman was shot to death on a Los Angeles Metro Rail train in
October. Ivan Kashinsky for The New York Times
Litzy Morales and Edgardo Sanchez sitting with their daughter, Gabriela, at a bus stop in Los Angeles. Ivan
Kashinsky for The New York Times
Darrell Owens, an East Bay Transit Riders Union member and transit advocate in the Bay Area, said public transit was
sometimes the only place Americans encounter strangers, meaning that fears about safety there are often
disproportionate to the perils of driving, which is often the most dangerous regular activity for Americans.
“The public is suffering in American cities,” he said. “That’s why American transit is so fraught: It’s one of the only
times secluded people see other members of the public.”
In Washington, the crime rate on the Metro has dropped this year from earlier in the pandemic but remains higher than
before the pandemic. The number of mental-health-related calls has increased especially drastically.
On metro Atlanta’s transit system, MARTA, officials have sought new ways to handle people who took refuge on public
transit during the pandemic. In August 2020, the system started a program in which officials said uniformed, unarmed
security staff would help homeless people by directing them to shelters, counseling and treatment when necessary.
“I think you’ll see more and more of that throughout the transit world,” M. Scott Kreher, MARTA’s police chief, said.
Passengers leaving 15th Street Station in Philadelphia, where actual incidents of crime on public transit
have been mounting throughout the pandemic. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times
A westbound train on the Market-Frankford Line in Philadelphia. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times
On the front lines of the nation’s public transit challenges are workers. They had already faced higher risk from the
virus because their jobs kept them in public, and some systems have reported struggles to rebuild their work forces.
Public transit workers say that harassment — physical assault, threats and objects thrown at them — remains
prevalent despite drops in ridership.
“Things have gotten worse — you’ve got to get back to some stability and you’ve got to make it safer for people,” said
Eric Dixon, president of the union that represents train employees in Chicago, who has called for a more robust police
presence, and additional conductors on trains, to combat crime.
Kimberly Benedetto has experienced her fair share of harassment over her 23 years driving buses for Philadelphia’s
system — passengers yelling at her and even spitting in her direction. But none of that compares with what she has
seen over the last couple of years.
“I feel like things have gotten out of control,” said Ms. Benedetto, who said she experienced one particularly frightening
incident in September by a teenager who threatened to assault her over a request to wear a mask, a requirement at the
time.
“I will not stay one day past 30 years,” said Ms. Benedetto, referring to the tenure she needs to receive her full pension.
“I’ll drive school buses — I just want to get away from this.”
A train conductor on a Red Line train in Chicago. Mary Mathis for The New York Times
Sophie Kasakove reported from New York, Jill Cowan from Los Angeles and Richard Fausset from Atlanta. Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting from New
York.
Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro.
Correction: April 25, 2022

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified a subway stop in Philadelphia. Passengers are
exiting 15th Street Station, not Suburban Station.
Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief. She has reported for The Times on the coronavirus pandemic, education, politics, law enforcement and literature.
She joined The Times in 2002 as a news assistant in the Washington bureau. @juliebosman • Facebook
Sophie Kasakove is a 2021-2022 reporting fellow for the National desk. @sophie_kasakove
Jill Cowan is a Los Angeles-based reporter for the National desk covering California. @jillcowan
Richard Fausset is a correspondent based in Atlanta. He mainly writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal
justice. He previously worked at The Los Angeles Times, including as a foreign correspondent in Mexico City. @RichardFausset
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Transit Crime Threatens Covid Rebound in Cities

Cities Want To Return To Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit Crime

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Cities Want to Return to Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit Crime.

- The New York Times 6/6/22, 9:06 PM

Cities Want to Return to Prepandemic Life. One Obstacle: Transit

By Julie Bosman, Sophie Kasakove, Jill Cowan and Richard Fausset

Published April 25, 2022 Updated April 28, 2022

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro.

Correction: April 25, 2022

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