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City increases patrol, safety measures at Southwest Parking Garage

Press release from City of Gainesville

City of Gainesville Interim City Manager Cynthia Curry has released the following statement:

We live in a beautiful community that has been shocked and saddened by recent late-night violence that has led to a tragic loss of life in the Southwest Parking Garage. We assure you we remain committed to the safety of Downtown neighbors, visitors, and parking garage patrons, and we are currently adding additional security measures throughout the garage including:

  •  increasing overnight security patrol throughout the facility Thursdays through Sundays from 7 p.m.-5 a.m.
  • expanding the camera system throughout the facility
  • upgrading the lighting stystem throughout the facility

Also effective today (5/5/22), we will limit access to the Southwest Parking Garage from 10 p.m.-5 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays.

  •  The entryway on SW 2nd Street will be closed during these hours.
  •  The entryway on SW 3rd Street will remain open during these hours only to patrons with parking garage permits, and access will be verified by security guards.

Outside these hours, patrons with parking garage permits retain 24/7 access to the facility via entryways on SW 2nd Street and SW 3rd Street. (Additional information about permits can be found through this link.) It is our hope these changes will help prevent future tragedies as we work to ensure the safety and security of all neighbors.

  • You mean another tragic loss of life. It’s not the first shooting death there.

    • Is alcohol involved from drinking at the clubs downtown?
      Would a temporary moratorium on serving booze
      After 10pm work? Is it booze and drug dealers
      Having “shoot-outs” from drug deals gone bad? Is it
      Gang stuff? Is it black on black crime? Is it convicted felons carrying guns and doing robberies? This stuff
      Is all happening late night, right?

      • It’s just a microcosm of Gainesville – no better and no worse. I don’t think it’s realistic to try to make it ‘pure’ of violent crime any more than it’s realistic for the city commission to try to achieve Zero traffic deaths. Add more cameras and lights and stuff – sure. But one shooting death every 10 or 20 years will probably happen anyway since it’s a parking garage and there are a lot of hip-hop events downtown. If you want to ban hip-hop music events, good luck with that.

  • What places downtown were the victims patronizing
    Before they were murdered. Does anyone know and
    Is law enforcement investigating this?

    • Maybe they need to remove the element downtown
      That is attracting this crime.

      • It’s not the parking garage that’s the problem, it’s the establishments they’re coming from late night. This is
        A college town. Downtown should stop serving food
        & booze at 10pm. All nightclubs closed at 10pm.
        Parents expect their college aged students to be safe
        & studying, not getting robbed or killed downtown.
        Remove the element that is causing the problem.
        Parking garages don’t kill people, people kill people.

      • Being able to go out at night is one of the very few redeeming qualities Gainesville has left. And there are a lot of jobs that would be ‘shut down’ as well.

  • So they basically admitted to not having suitable lighting, security or surveillance equipment.

    Sounds like a very winnable case for an attorney without much effort. Especially seeing as how the city likes to pay people off to reduce their exposure.

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