Hark!

This weekend I picked up some frozen raspberries and a bottle of V-8 at Hark's Food Market, on 24th and Nicollet. A Google search for Hark's led me to this MPR story about a murder that happened on this corner in 2006. What I found most interesting about the story was Whittier resident Christina Schmitt's presumption that locally-owned businesses like Hark's contribute to the neighborhood's safety. As MPR's reporter points out, plenty of crimes are committed in the area, some of them serious, many of them right in front of Hark's. Yet I wonder how many more crimes might be committed there if the owners of Hark's--who evidently live not far from the store--weren't keeping an eye on things. "The more I know [the people who loiter near the store]," says owner Ian Ates, "the less they cause troubles. It's like an unspoken bond."