After a bullet hit freshman Martha Childress, leaving her paralyzed, Columbia residents and students are on high alert. For the past few years, the Five Points area has become a major scene for violence and crime. USCPD and the city police knew they had to make a change if students continued to travel down there late at night.
Most students, especially ones living on campus, choose to walk to get downtown. Another popular option is calling a cab. Unfortunately, neither of these are one hundred percent safe. It’s great that students have been making smart decisions not to drive after consuming alcohol. But the streets of Five Points are never risk free.
This past weekend USC announced shuttles will be taking and picking up students to and from Five Points from 9:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. This greatly eliminated the amount of kids waiting around in the dark for cabs or walking home late at night. While taxis only allow four passengers, shuttles can carry at least 30 to 40 people at a time. The shuttles run along two different routes. The “Dodie/Blatt Route” runs through The Dodie and Blatt P.E. Center, and the “Capstone/Greek Village Route” runs through Capstone, Russell House and Greek Village. Not only will students be able to stay warm with cold weather coming through, but it also saves long walking distances or money for cabs.
What is ironic about the shuttles is the place they pick up and drop off students: the fountain, where the stray bullet hit Childress in the spine. As helpful as the shuttles are, they definitely need to rethink where they have students wait and be dropped off. However, it was a good first step to increasing the safety in Five Points.
As President Harris Pastides explained in his email, he has “expressed [his] desire to see the bars close earlier in Five Points.” Unfortunately, this could create a lot of overcrowding and many bars will choose to stick to their own closing times. However, this is only the beginning of many new safety measures to come for downtown Columbia. Many students and other bar-goers are relieved to see that police and the University are actually taking the time and making the effort to think of and create new ways to keep local residents safe.