MINNEAPOLIS — A widely-shared video shows cars hot-rodding and burning out as dozens of people surround the intersection and watch in downtown Minneapolis at the corner of Washington Avenue and 3rd Avenue North late Saturday night into Sunday morning.
"It's been weekend after weekend after weekend," said Mary Kennedy, who watched from her apartment window as some people were nearly hit and one young man climbed to the top of a street sign.
"The racing. The burnouts. Those have definitely escalated," Kennedy said.
Kennedy said she loves Minneapolis and downtown, but that the escalating lawlessness and hot-rodding cannot take place here.
"It does make me feel unsafe," she said.
Ward 3 Council Member Steve Fletcher agrees.
"It's upsetting," Fletcher said. "You know the footage is disturbing. And this is something we do need to go after. One thing that we do need to be able to do is to have more ability to create consequences after the fact."
It's a growing problem in cities across the country. And city leaders say there is no easy solution.
St. Louis blocked a route into downtown after a person was killed as a result of street racing.
Council Member Fletcher wants Minneapolis to start using photo enforcement, which would take action from the state legislature.
"The idea is to record the behavior, to be able to write tickets and create consequences based on that," he said.
Right now, there are few consequences for those seen in these "hot-rodding" videos because police have to weigh the potential risk to bystanders when dispersing the crowd.