Members of Janesville’s city council and plan commission say vagrancy and lack of maintenance has caused a mess at the city’s North Parker Drive public parking garage, and they want it cleaned up.
Janesville City Council member Paul Williams says he went into the four-story city parking deck over the weekend to check parking capacity while researching an apartment proposal across the street, off North Parker Drive. He says he was surprised — but not at all pleased — with what he found.
“A lot of lights are out. I went up to the (deck’s) fourth floor, went into the elevator, pushed the elevator button…I wouldn’t go in that elevator. It smells like a bathroom. The wallpaper is ripped off the wall, and the other stairwell had people in it.”
Big Radio checked out the parking deck Tuesday morning and found several overhead lights out on the top two decks. Both stairwell landings on the upper floors had multiple people huddled inside, including one couple who was sleeping under blankets.
Typically, the city shuts down parking on the deck’s upper levels during winter. In the past, Janesville police have reported some homeless people use the parking deck’s stairwells to shelter from weather, like during (Tuesday’s) drenching rains. Williams says it’s obvious some vagrants use the stairwells as a restroom. He says the odor and the mess is unmistakable.
He says he’s gotten reports, too that people avoid using the parking ramp’s upper decks to park on busy restaurant nights because of chronic vagrancy and panhandling there.
The city wrote new policy last year to curb homeless camping in a public parking lot at the Hedberg Public Library. It was after homeless people had turned the Hedberg lot into a permanent encampment where people were living out of RVs, camper vans, and other vehicles. The city now allows homeless people to sleep in their vehicles only at the city’s North Jackson Street public lot across the street from the Janesville Police Department.
Williams and Janesville Plan Commission member Deb Dongarra both have asked the city’s administration during a meeting this week to investigate and address the conditions in the city’s North Parker Drive parking garage.
Dongarra says she’s parked at the deck recently, and she feels like the level of vagrancy there makes it feel consistently unsafe to park there. She finds herself looking over her shoulder when she’s in the parking garage.
“I don’t feel like I should have to do that in my own downtown,” Dongarra says. “That’s the only (public) parking ramp we have. I think it needs to be cleaned up. I don’t like to hear all the comments of what it smells like, and who’s in there, and what paraphernalia might be around.”
Williams says he’s gotten complaints of panhandling and recently learned at least one downtown restaurant worker who uses the parking deck has begun to have someone drop her off and pick her up at work at night so she can avoid using the parking deck.
