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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Woman assaulted in car Sunday Otherwise, U police reported the weekend as slow for crime. BY JAKE STARK jstark@mndaily.com
A woman was assaulted near the University Information Technology building early Sunday, according to a University police report. The woman, 28, was riding home from Loring Pasta Bar along University Avenue with a male friend at about 3:30 a.m. when she became concer ned that the man had drank too much before driving, the report said. When she told him to pull over, the man became angr y and allegedly grabbed her head and shook her. The man pulled over near the Information Technology building after the woman threatened to call 911, the report said. After he let her out of the car, the woman immediately called University police. When the of ficers arrived at the scene, they found the woman cr ying and sitting on the sidewalk, the report said. She told the officers about the assault, and they found the suspect parked in a handicapped parking spot nearby.
POLICE REPORT
The man confessed to the attack, but he said the victim punched him in the face before he grabbed her, according to the repor t. The officers arrested him on suspicion of fifth-degree assault and booked him at Hennepin County Jail. The woman, who is not affiliated with the University, suf fered a minor scratch to her chin from the assault, the report said. But she became so upset about the incident that officers called paramedics to transport her to Hennepin County Medical Center for care. The assault headlined a slow weekend in on-campus crime, said University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner. University police mostly responded to calls about minor consumption of alcohol and repor ts of theft. Miner said he expects criminal activity to pick up in the coming weeks with spring approaching quickly. The warmer weather will cause more people to go out and increase the opportunity for crime, he said.
Charges filed in prosthetics case Charges u from Page 1
Center conducted an internal investigation in response to the allegations and has worked with federal investigators. “We’re committed to the highest ethical standards in all of our operations and business practices,” Davenport said. Stasica faces up to 20 years in prison and will appear in federal court April 11.
Man charged with videotaping minors at Mariucci
A Coon Rapids, Minn., man is facing up to two years in prison for allegedly videotaping a young boy at Mariucci Arena. Rober t Minor, 53, appeared in cour t Monday mor ning after he was charged last week with privacy interference. Investigators found a wristwatch camera with video footage of several young boys in his
home. According to the criminal complaint, the defendant made two video recordings, one of several boys watching the hockey game and another of a boy using the restroom. The video shows an 8- to 12-year-old boy urinating into a urinal trough, according to the complaint. University police officer Jason Tossey, who investigated the videos, said the boy appeared uncomfor table in the 47-second recording, according to the complaint. At the end of the recording, the defendant looked into the camera, Tossey said, and his face could be seen. The videos were taken on Dec. 31, 2011, during the men’s hockey Mariucci Classic Tournament. In the complaint, Tossey said he was able to identify the location as Mariucci Arena because he has worked at the hockey games for 13 years. Minor faces up to two years in prison with a $5,000 fine.
Ice u from Page 1
future, she said. High salt concentrations are beginning to affect native fish and insect populations, especially in landlocked lakes. Asleson said large institutions like the University can play a significant role in protecting water resources. The University works with MPCA to educate workers on how to apply the proper amounts of salt for safety while trying to make the least environmental impact, she said. “People’s safety is very important but so are our water resources,” Asleson said. A number of alternative anti-icing methods like beet juice and cheese brine have been tested, Asleson said, but both of these also have a negative environmental impact. Cheese brine, which is being developed in Wisconsin, has chloride in it, and beet juice is an organic material that can deplete oxygen in water. Another alternative is porous pavement, which allows water to drain into parking lots instead of refreezing on top, she said. Asleson said fixing areas that create icy conditions and removing ice and snow manually are other substitutes to anti-icing products. “There’s really not a product out there that is completely safe for the environment,” she said. Lauer said though these chemicals produce a variety of negative effects, their role in campus safety makes them necessary.
Housing u from Page 1
by pooling resources or taking out loans, according to Ryan Allen, University assisant professor of community and economic development. Steps like this, he said, explain why almost 90 percent of the district reported that their housing costs were af-
“It’s a balancing thing. Safety’s probably No. 1,” Lauer said. “Without treating walkways [and] roadways, we’d have many, many more injuries on campus.”
Balancing safety and pollution
Lauer said Landcare has taken steps every year to reduce its chloride use on campus. Dyeing the ice melt blue makes it more visible on icy ground and helps prevent using more than necessary, Lauer said. “You’re able to better see what you put down and not over-apply,” he said. Pre-treating walkways with a salty brine before a snowstorm can also help reduce the amount of ice melt needed, he said, because it keeps snow from bonding to the concrete and creates a slushy layer rather than an icy one. “You keep a good traction on your surface longer,” he said. Lauer said Landcare performs salt-related repairs every year, like reseeding the turf along the sidewalk where the salt killed the grass, for example. University Parking and Transportation Services replaces concrete deteriorated by ice and salt, he said. To prevent having to repair equipment, he said Landcare workers wash vehicles and equipment every time they work with chlorides. Lauer said Landcare used to use sand to prevent slips, but sand can clog storm sewers and kill grass if it builds up. Road traffic can break up sand particles into dust, which can be harmful to
fordable. The city considers paying less than a third of one’s total income on housing to be affordable housing, he said, so students don’t realize that sometimes “affordable” housing on campus isn’t universally seen that way. And because students are keen to live close to campus and willing to turn to their parents for financial help, Allen said, they find ways to
BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY
University sophomore Christian Boomgaarden and senior Troy Marschall spread ice melt Monday on the University’s East Bank.
breathe in, he said. Though Landcare uses sand on extremely cold days when chlorides lose their effectiveness, Lauer said it has significantly reduced its sand use. Though anti-icing makes campus safer, its environmental effects should always be considered, said biomedical engineering freshman Julia
ICE MELT: CHEMISTRY AND COST ANTI-ICING PRODUCT
TEMPERATURE RANGE (F)
Inexpensive, least corrosive
Can enter waterways and cause erosion
MAGNESIUM CHLORIDE
29 to minus 10 degrees
Effective at low temperatures
Can enter waterways and cause erosion, expensive, cannot be mixed with sodium chloride, slippery above 30 degrees
CALCIUM CHLORIDE
Minus 10 to minus 20 degrees
Middle cost, can be mixed with sodium chloride, does not become slippery at warm temperatures, effective at very low temperatures
Can enter waterways and cause erosion, most corrosive
SOURCES: FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
pay their rent. “Given this inelastic demand, students are going to live close to the University come hell or high water,” he said. “So they’re willing to pay a little bit more.” Streitz said projects around campus detract from the fact that there’s plenty of affordable housing on campus. “People tend to focus on the fact that the new develop-
ONE IN FIVE RESPONDENTS MENTIONED HOUSING-RELATED CHALLENGES AS ONE OF THREE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING THE CITY IN THE COMING FIVE YEARS
70% ARE SATISFIED OR VERY SATISFIED WITH AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS
91% OF UNIVERSITY DISTRICT AGREED OR STRONGLY AGREED THAT NEIGHBORHOOD HAS A GOOD SELECTION OF STORES THAT MEET THEIR NEEDS
82% OF UNIVERSITY DISTRICT AGREED OR STRONGLY AGREED THAT NEIGHBORHOOD IS CLEAN AND WELLMAINTAINED
74% OF UNIVERSITY DISTRICT REPORTED THAT THEIR CURRENT RESIDENCE WAS JUST THE RIGHT SIZE. 20% SAID TOO SMALL
87% OF UNIVERSITY DISTRICT REPORTED THAT THEIR HOUSING COSTS ARE AFFORDABLE
62% OF UNIVERSITY DISTRICT REPORTED BEING SATISFIED OR VERY SATISFIED WITH AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
FOURTH HIGHEST OF 11 DISTRICTS
SECOND LOWEST OF 11 DISTRICTS SOURCE: CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS
SURVEYS
CONS
32 to 15 degrees
HOUSING IS THE FOURTH-BIGGEST CHALLENGE AFTER PUBLIC SAFETY, EDUCATION AND TRANSPORTATION
1 , 37 8
PROS
SODIUM CHLORIDE
MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT SURVEY RESULTS
TOTAL OF
Karpas. “Safety is important, but there should be a balance between the two,” Karpas said. Though she said she dislikes having salt on her shoes, she prefers it to glare ice. “It’s annoying, but I think I would rather have that than falling all over the place.”
ments tend to be higher-end,” he said. “But there is still a lot of affordable housing in the U District.” The perception that recent projects are expensive is accurate, but the idea that there isn’t enough affordable housing to offset it is not, said Kelly Doran, the prolific developer behind Sydney Hall and the upcoming Knoll apartments. New development comes at a high price, he said, and high rent is the only way to finance it. “It’s expensive because it’s expensive to build,” he said. Because of the cost, it’s not financially viable to invest in new construction and then charge mid-range rent, he said. “That’s a terribly inefficient way to develop affordable student housing,” he said. “You can’t build a $200,000 apar tment and charge less rent just because someone needs to have it affordable.” Instead, Doran said, investing in remodeling or improving existing affordable housing is the best solution. Through discussions like these, the city can use the resident sur vey as a scorecard for its work, said Ahmed Muhumud, a city outreach manager. Str eitz said he was pleased with the results of the survey, both for the city as a whole and for his department. “It’s heartening to see more people describe affordable housing development as something important to them,” he said.