INDIANAPOLIS — Drivers who use a downtown Indianapolis parking garage want to know why the elevators are frequently out-of-order, and why repair crews aren't fixing them.
It's a parking structure in the middle of downtown, just across the street from the statehouse. It's ten stories in all, but the people who park there often say the elevators just aren't working.
"You just never know when they're going to go down."
"You don't know until you park and go to leave."
"Often they'll go down in the middle the day."
"At least two or three times a week."
The people RTV6 talked to say they often walk over to the elevators and they find signs that say 'temporarily out of service,' and they're having to walk back out from the elevators, and walk down the ten flights of stairs.
"Even when I'm early, I'm on six or above," Jenny Good, who parks in the garage, said.
Along Capitol Avenue, just past Market Street, the 'Court Street' parking garage can hold nearly 600 cars.
"For myself, I have Vertigo," Sally Morris, who parks daily in the Court Street parking garage, said. "So it's difficult to use the stairwell, and you shouldn't have to be forced to use the stairwell."
So, here's the other thing, drivers actually can't park on floors one or two. People can only start parking on floor three; that's because the rental car company that's in this building uses all the spots on those first two floors.
Circle Center mall operates the elevators in the structure, so the newsroom reached out to them.
The mall said they weren't aware of both elevators being 'out of order,' even though RTV6 found the signs on Friday when we contacted them. They did say that there is another elevator bank on the back side of the structure.
They say there is supposed to be signage on the broken elevators, directing drivers to the other elevators, but RTV6 crews walked up and down the whole structure and never found any signs.
RTV6 did eventually find them, but found another issue; the elevators don't go to the ground level.
People are stuck at the Embassy Suites driveway. To get down, they have to go into the hotel and exit on Illinois Street, then walk around the block to get back to the entrance on Capitol Avenue.
"Having a sign when someone pulls into the garage letting us know that the elevators are down would be helpful, so people with disabilities would be able to exit and find alternate parking," Good said.
RTV6 brought that idea to the mall, and they said it's a good idea and they're already starting to make the signs.
The mall told RTV6, following this report, that one of two broken elevators on the statehouse side of the building are working again.
RTV6 will follow up on the concerns of the parking garage and that the other elevator is back up and working correctly.
