Atmosphere improving at Iowa City Ped Mall

IOWA CITY - Things are looking up at the Ped Mall, one of Iowa City's premier gathering places.

'It's a much friendlier feeling in the downtown right now,” with fewer fights, less trash and other issues, says David Schwindt, the Iowa City Police Department's downtown liaison officer.

Schwindt believes the changes started after the city clarified and added to the Ped Mall ordinances in the fall of 2013. Among the changes: restricting where people could lay down during the day and discouraging people from bringing and storing personal property in the area.

Following that, he says, the free lunch program moved to Gilbert Court and cut down on the large numbers of people who spent most of their day on the Ped Mall.

Additionally, search warrants served at places thought to be selling synthetic drugs in May 2014 eliminated unusual psychotic behavior police were seeing from some of those on the pedestrian mall, he says.

'We have less behavior that is bad,” Schwindt says, referring to the people who were buying and using the synthetic drugs. Those people have moved on, 'and the problems have decreased such that there isn't frustration with the business owners.”

It's meant fewer calls about people trespassing, blocking business doors, and arguing, and the Ped Mall's atmosphere is changing, he says.

With the decrease in problems, Schwindt says he's now able to work more closely with the people still there.

'I can spend a lot more of my time working with the people downtown … and helping them with different (things),” he says. 'That has been invaluable because they can see the police aren't just there to arrest.”

He hopes the general public will come downtown and see that the pedestrian mall has changed for the better.

'I would like to see an environment where anyone who wants to come down … is comfortable to do so,” he says. 'Everyone regardless of housing status should be able to come down and enjoy the Ped Mall and enjoy it for what it is, which is a social hub of the city.”

Mary Hintermeister of Lone Tree says she brings her children downtown at least three times a week to visit the public library and enjoy the Ped Mall.

While the homeless population is a touchy subject, Hintermeister says, she thinks the Ped Mall is a good place for families.

'It's nice you can come and go to the library, play at the park, play in the fountain and then go get something to eat,” she says. 'It's a nice atmosphere.”

City Council member Terry Dickens, the owner of Herteen and Stocker Jewelers, 101 S. Dubuque St., says the area still has problems but conditions have improved in the past couple of years.

'I've seen a big uptick in the number of people using (the Ped Mall),” he says. 'As a business person, we've seen a reduction in the number of complaints.”