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For those that work or live on the DSM skywalk

Tenacious E

HR Legend
Dec 4, 2001
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Is this the worst you can remember with regard to piss smells and people just throwing garbage everywhere? The garbage annoys me but the piss is just vile. Commercial grade carpet is an awesome choice for normal people, but I guess they will need to put in surfaces better suited for incontinent pets.
 
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Is this the worst you can remember with regard to piss smells and people just throwing garbage everywhere? The garbage annoys me but the piss is just vile. Commercial grade carpet is an awesome choice for normal people, but I guess they will need to put in surfaces better suited for incontinent pets.
Bumping this. Absolutely horrible this morning. I have altered my route from parking to the office in an effort to avoid "hot spots" and now take the stairs up to the ground level to avoid a particularly smelly elevator. This was working thus fur, but alas, this morning I was met with wafts of poop smells in the stairwell. I'm going to need to start smearing peppermint oil under my nostrils before leaving my car... csb
 
Saw a guy shit on bike trail in downtown last summer. Didn’t even break stride, just pulled pants down and did it.

Overpasses have homeless or signs of homeless. Grays Lake had a big encampment around thanksgiving.

Des Moines better stop ignoring the issue or it will get out of control.

Also have heard stories that the skywalks are turning into harassment zones and unpleasant confrontations.
 
Saw a guy shit on bike trail in downtown last summer. Didn’t even break stride, just pulled pants down and did it.

Overpasses have homeless or signs of homeless. Grays Lake had a big encampment around thanksgiving.

Des Moines better stop ignoring the issue or it will get out of control.

Also have heard stories that the skywalks are turning into harassment zones and unpleasant confrontations.
I doubt that the city fathers are “ignoring” this problem...but there are other more glaring problems they are trying to get a handle on. “Homelessness” has been an issue for decades, now guns and violence in Court Avenue is a headline grabber. I agree the skywalk is an issue that needs addressing...it’s just a matter of priorities.
 
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While I haven’t noticed the piss smell, the skyway has been noticeably worse for me post-COVID, particularly with homeless people. There was someone sleeping in the parking garage staircase last year I had to step around in the morning and when I went by that night pills were scattered everywhere. Last week it looked like someone tried to break the camera going into the parking garage stairs.

The biggest smell I was noticing last year was weed. I’m guessing kids were walking around the skyway smoking.
 
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Is this the worst you can remember with regard to piss smells and people just throwing garbage everywhere? The garbage annoys me but the piss is just vile. Commercial grade carpet is an awesome choice for normal people, but I guess they will need to put in surfaces better suited for incontinent pets.
I lived there from 2013-2015, and I'd say winter into spring of 2014 was as bad as I ever saw it. Or, should say... smelled it. Few locations had power outlets, so at one point I had found an air-filter and used to set it up in my little fort so I could at least breathe decent air. Got the hell out as soon as it warmed up!
 
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Is this the worst you can remember with regard to piss smells and people just throwing garbage everywhere? The garbage annoys me but the piss is just vile. Commercial grade carpet is an awesome choice for normal people, but I guess they will need to put in surfaces better suited for incontinent pets.
Incontinent pets or homeless?
 
Incontinent pets or homeless?
This is not a pet issue. And I feel horrible for making light of it, as we should absolutely do better for the amputees puttering around in rascals and wheel chairs, but the reality of the current situation is what it is. It is people who piss themselves all day long, day after day, and never change clothes or shower. I would love for them to find appropriate shelter and living conditions, because they either don't have access to it or they are not using it.
 
This is not a pet issue. And I feel horrible for making light of it, as we should absolutely do better for the amputees puttering around in rascals and wheel chairs, but the reality of the current situation is what it is. It is people who piss themselves all day long, day after day, and never change clothes or shower. I would love for them to find appropriate shelter and living conditions, because they either don't have access to it or they are not using it.





I Hear ya.
 
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Wife an I were in the skywalk a few weeks ago around 9:30pm. There was a guy walking about 30 feet ahead of us. As we were getting closer to this darker area he pulled a full mask down over his face. He turned a corner but I could see through the windows that he didn't keep walking. As we approached the T intersection I noticed he had stopped against the wall and turned towards us and started walking towards us. Just then a door opened and a Hotel employee came through pushing a cart full of dishes. He stopped and turned away and walked back the other way.

I'm not sure what his intention was but I had a pretty good idea and it wasn't good.
 
Wife an I were in the skywalk a few weeks ago around 9:30pm. There was a guy walking about 30 feet ahead of us. As we were getting closer to this darker area he pulled a full mask down over his face. He turned a corner but I could see through the windows that he didn't keep walking. As we approached the T intersection I noticed he had stopped against the wall and turned towards us and started walking towards us. Just then a door opened and a Hotel employee came through pushing a cart full of dishes. He stopped and turned away and walked back the other way.

I'm not sure what his intention was but I had a pretty good idea and it wasn't good.
It's really sad what has become of a lot of the skywalk system. That whole Blackbird failure to develop the Kaleidoscope food court building has just created a zone of desolation, deterioration, graffiti, and lord knows what else. This has crept into other areas, in conjunction with many businesses moving operations further west. It used to be a vibrant area, busy enough where people wouldn't do such things. Not any more, sadly.
 
It's really sad what has become of a lot of the skywalk system. That whole Blackbird failure to develop the Kaleidoscope food court building has just created a zone of desolation, deterioration, graffiti, and lord knows what else. This has crept into other areas, in conjunction with many businesses moving operations further west. It used to be a vibrant area, busy enough where people wouldn't do such things. Not any more, sadly.
I would tend to think that "downtown" DSM would be a pretty good place to work now...especially since Covid. I have spoken to friend(s) on the police force who admit that DSM needs a lot more "beat officers" and that the skywalk and Court Ave are areas that present LEO with unique policing challenges. A lot of hard work has gone into building up downtown DSM since the 1970's and to continue not to work on it will lead quickly to its demise. The loss this week of Wells Fargo to the 'burbs will be another hurdle for DSM to overcome.....
A few years ago, the #1 problem with downtown DSM workers was parking.......how times have changed.
 
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So Iowa is a pisshole now too on top of being a shithole? Great
 
I would tend to think that "downtown" DSM would be a pretty good place to work now...especially since Covid. I have spoken to friend(s) on the police force who admit that DSM needs a lot more "beat officers" and that the skywalk and Court Ave are areas that present LEO with unique policing challenges. A lot of hard work has gone into building up downtown DSM since the 1970's and to continue not to work on it will lead quickly to its demise. The loss this week of Wells Fargo to the 'burbs will be another hurdle for DSM to overcome.....
A few years ago, the #1 problem with downtown DSM workers was parking.......how times have changed.
It is a great place to work, overall. Once it gets warm again, these issues will subside as most people just hang and congregate outside.
 
I worked downtown from 2003 to 2009. Always enjoyed the skywalk, especially the area around the Kaleidoscope. Lots of nice shops and eateries. Ate at Palmer’s Deli 2-3 times a week.

Even today, I take my sons (11 and 8) downtown 1-2 times a month on weekends during the winter to walk the skywalks. We’ve been doing it 4-5 years. Just something to do.

It’s sad to see the Kaleidoscope area deserted. Palmer’s and a few other shops and restaurants are still around, but most of them are gone. Lots of empty spaces. Feels like an abandoned mall. Too bad the plans for that new development fell through.

Haven’t really noticed the piss smell, but have seen a few homeless people.
 
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I lived there from 2013-2015, and I'd say winter into spring of 2014 was as bad as I ever saw it. Or, should say... smelled it. Few locations had power outlets, so at one point I had found an air-filter and used to set it up in my little fort so I could at least breathe decent air. Got the hell out as soon as it warmed up!
I am a but confused - non-homeless people live in the skyway?
 
I am a but confused - non-homeless people live in the skyway?
Define "live." Some homeless do "reside" there during the winter, others who reside in low income units such as Elsie Mason Manor and Ligutti Tower just hang out there all day, essentially "living" in there.
 
Define "live." Some homeless do "reside" there during the winter, others who reside in low income units such as Elsie Mason Manor and Ligutti Tower just hang out there all day, essentially "living" in there.
I was referring to @Colonoscopy stating he “lived there” from 2013-15. Maybe he meant Des Moines in general, I read it as in the skywalk system.
 
My former office moved out of there right before Covid. I was downtown recently for something and took a stroll through the skywalk and it just made me depressed honestly. The Kaleidoscope is an unbelievable eyesore now.
 
That skywalk always reminded me of the death of the 70's, early 80's. Dark and depressing.
 
Don't forget the charges on the mob of teenagers beating a young couple or the recent child stealing case.



 
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About all the further I go is the Federal Building to JJ's or to the parking garage just south. I haven't noticed anything.
 
Don't forget the charges on the mob of teenagers beating a young couple or the recent child stealing case.



I will say that while I have not been harassed by teens on the skywalk, I have been hassled by a pack of them during warming months out on the sidewalk. I'm a fairly big guy and it was in the broad daylight in a crowded area, so I didn't think they would really do anything, but it was off putting and a horrible look for DSM. The weirdest part about it was that it was completely random to me. I had never interacted with any of them before. I think they were just itching for a fight.
 
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For the Florida people like me who have never been to Iowa



 
For the Florida people like me who have never been to Iowa



Des Moinesers are quite proud of their human habitrail. :)

Habitrail-OVO-Suite.jpg
 
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One reason to visit Des Moines, there is a Bennigan's nearby

There are only 12 locations remaining in the U.S. and 4 of them are in Iowa.

Sadly, the one in Rock Island is no more.

But the new place in its location looks mildly intriguing.

AF1QipN79x_CQHDUCODiGLD9xKkhq9IegyDrRliZmLoK=s680-w680-h510
 
I don't think I've been to a Bennigan's since a spring break trip to Tampa in the late 2000s. And there's been one in town the whole time. It's not like I never go to Merle Hay either, that's my where preferred Kohl's is.
 
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