Overnight skywalk closures have angered some downtown Des Moines residents. Here's why:

John Taylor remembers when the downtown skywalk was full of small businesses.

The office of his eye doctor for 15 years is now empty. A long-ago favorite, Stella's Blue Sky Diner, where waitresses poured milkshakes in glasses on customers' heads, has been replaced with Panda Chinese Food.

Taylor has used the skywalk for nearly 40 years to walk to work from his downtown apartment. In that time period, he says he has watched the skywalk slowly decline.

"Every winter is worse than the prior year," Taylor said about the number of homeless people who sleep in the skywalk. Last year, he said he counted around 21 people sleeping in one night.

More: Parts of the Des Moines skywalk are smelly and leaky while others are pristine. Why?

To help bring that number down — and address concerns over safety and cleanliness — the skywalk association started in late September locking several doors overnight. It's a trial run estimated to last a couple of years.

But tenants who live in downtown apartments with connections to the skywalk say the result has meant limited access for residents, particularly those who park in parking garages with entrances behind locked doors. Taylor says he also wants to use the skywalk at night to avoid being outside in the dark and still reach his daily 10,000 step goal.

The tenants say they're frustrated by the changes and have not had their ideas to accomodate them heard.

7 locked doors mean no late-night access to parking garages

Seven doors now lock from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. as a trial run to see if conditions in the skywalk improve, said Chad Bentzinger, skywalk association president. The overnight closures are a temporary solution that he estimated will last for one to two years.

The association believes locking those doors will reduce the footprint security has to control overnight. Security will sweep the locked area to make sure no one is inside and ask Operation Downtown to address any messes before people use the skywalk in the mornings, Bentzinger said.

The doors will stay unlocked for at least two hours following the conclusion of any events at the Iowa Events Center or Des Moines Civic Center.

But on nights where there is no event, tenants say they struggle to leave their building and reach their cars.

"We all moved down here because of the amenity of the skywalk," said Nancy Thompson, a downtown resident who shared her concerns with other neighbors in a group interview with the Des Moines Register. "But now they've decided there's a problem, we're not gonna put enough money into having security doing the skywalk at night, so we're gonna tell all those residents who live here, you just gotta stay in at night."

More: Here's where and why the Des Moines skywalk is finally locking its doors overnight

Several tenants who spoke to the Register park at the Brown parking garage, 401 Grand Ave., which they can't access through the skywalk during locked hours. Instead, they walk at least three blocks outside to reach the parking garage, which they say is a hardship in bad weather.

The neighbors say several tenants already have moved out, with the skywalk closure a contributing factor. One person, Thompson said, was a flight attendant who needed to come and go to their car during what the group calls the "curfew."

Thompson said she worries if she moves to a building that has better access, the locked doors will just expand further, restricting access down the line. Bentzinger previously told the Register the association may expand to other areas of the skywalk if the test is successful, but said he wouldn't know more for several months.

They say they don't understand how pushing both the people sleeping in the skywalk and the tenants living downtown outside would address safety since both groups would still interact outdoors. Plus, a majority of the group who met with the Register said they have never felt unsafe walking through the skywalk at night, regardless of people sleeping inside.

For Utahna Grimm, the concern centers around accessibility. Many of the people at Grimm's downtown job are in wheelchairs or have a disability.

"Many of the tenants are using walkers and wheelchairs, so going outside is not possible," Grimm said. "I walk the skywalk and agree that there may be some issues with people without homes and trash left behind. Now the lockdown will force some of these unfortunate people to go back on the streets. So those of us needing to access the skywalk after 10 p.m. have no choice but to walk outside where those same people are."

Grimm works 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and can't get home through the skywalk anymore. She's now worried she will lose her job because she has requested to get off early to get home.

Downtown resident Tami McLaren said the change was discussed in monthly meetings hosted by the Downtown Neighborhood Association over the spring and summer. Residents at the time asked for a key fob or something similar to maintain parking garage access, but according to them, their concerns were ignored.

Bentzinger said instead of key fobs, the association believes it's "probably more relevant to have people be aware of the hours and operate within the hours versus kind of negating what we're trying to achieve," he said.

Plus, he said, locking the skywalk at night improves users' experiences by preventing them from encountering trash or safety concerns.

"I understand that there might be some inconveniences, and I feel for those who may have that and we're certainly not trying to make it more difficult, but we do believe that this is the best thing for our downtown community and for the safety of the folks who work and live down here," Bentzinger said.

Skywalk association says locked doors aren't only planned steps

The skywalk association has other plans in the works to address concerns with the skywalk, Bentzinger said, including having an outreach program coordinator tasked with staffing and patrolling the skywalks.

"We certainly don't want it to be a long-term thing," he said of the locked doors.

Another initiative in the works is to install wayfinding kiosks throughout the skywalk. Bentzinger said it would include stations where people could get directions on where to shop, get coffee, or find their way.

"We want there to be more of an interactive component to it," he said. "They're still gathering and discussing what all that incorporates. But ideally it would help identify either the location that the individual or patron is looking for, but also help to inform them of the businesses and amenities that are available to them in the skywalk."

Des Moines leaders earlier this year also approved a new downtown master plan that includes reimagining the skywalk as a place for public art, pop-up shops and installations and more retail opportunities.

Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter@NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Why overnight Des Moines skywalk closures has downtown tenants upset