Normally, the street corner outside Mercado Central is teeming with people darting in and out of stores, lugging groceries to a bus stop across the street or otherwise going about their business.
But, as Marina Lopez insists, the past few months have been anything but normal.
Lopez, who runs a clothing shop inside the usually bustling market on the corner of E. Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue S., says business hasn't been so good lately, at least not since the area was hit by a string of robberies targeting mostly Latino men on their way home from work or from the grocery store.
And while police have stepped up patrols in the surrounding Midtown Phillips neighborhood, the muggings have put some residents on edge. "They're still afraid to come here, it's so dangerous," Lopez said of some of her regular customers.
Another vendor said his customers had noticed a recent rise in violent crime. Some of them have turned skittish and have refused to leave their homes after hours.
The suspects in the recent spree have mostly targeted Latinos — at least 17, mostly men, were robbed last month in the Midtown section of the Third Precinct, the city's largest, which is bounded by Interstate 35W to the west, I-94 to the north, the Mississippi River to the east and 62nd Street to the south. The ethnically diverse area is home to many of the city's Latin American immigrants.
Most of the victims were walking alone when they were attacked, and more than half were near their homes, according to police.
Police said they first started noticing a rash of armed stickups in the precinct in early October, although there was no discernible pattern. Authorities would not say whether any of the muggings are a result of gang activity or drug trading, as some community leaders have suggested.
