The city is working with businesses to retrieve their carts. Dave Englund, the city’s building official, told the council that Cub and Target have been particularly receptive and are picking up carts on a regular basis.

The city has also reached out to Metro Transit to ask about adding a cart corral at the stop. Metro Transit spokesperson Drew Kerr told the Minnesota Star Tribune no such plans are in the works.

Roseville resident Rob Barona said he started noticing the carts during the pandemic and said they sometimes get buried under snow and ice. He worries the carts, along with dangerous jaywalking, panhandling and trash, contribute to an image that the area’s going downhill: “It’s just a junkyard up there.”

Barona said he’s noticed some improvement in removing the carts as the city has worked with retailers, but it remains a problem.

Strahan, who brought the issue to the City Council, pitched several potential solutions. She said some U.S. cities require some retailers to use technology to keep carts in their parking lots, using wheel locks or geofencing. At stores in other cities, she noted, carts are sometimes labeled with reminders that taking them off-premises is stealing.

She said she’s sympathetic to transit riders’ needs, but argues the cart pile is a problem.