“Nothing more to take, already done three times.
»The sheet stuck on the window of a car in the basement of a public car park in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) puts in condition.
The “user experience” that awaits us looks promising.
You can't help but glance around and play it in "escape game" mode.
No one on the horizon, very few parked vehicles and narrow pedestrian accesses that smell of urine.
Freediving to the surface.
"I'm never going to park underground, it's too creepy," says a driver who prefers to run for several minutes in the streets and land "hard", rather than attempting the adventure in the streets. below the city.
If one figure were to sum up the climate of mistrust that has developed with customers, it would be the occupancy rate of the park at the station (Boulevard Marcel-Sembat) which is only 30%.
How did we get there, in the six public covered car parks managed by Plaine commune in Indigo?
This is what the new municipality wants to understand, pointing out in particular the difficulties of the Basilica site.
Located in the heart of the town, it is the largest of all with 1,450 public spaces in the basement of the 3,249 covered locations identified in Saint-Denis.
Designed on two levels, it offers the first 950 visitor parking lots (the rest being reserved for subscribers, the second and 80% occupied).
In Saint-Denis, in the station car park  LP / CG
A first crisis meeting took place in video, just before the December holidays, in which elected officials, the sub-prefect of Saint-Denis, but also representatives of the national and municipal police, the mediation service and of the Indigo delegatee.
“It was electric,” reports Antoine Mokrane, deputy mayor in charge of transport and roads.
No one spoke to each other for so many years.
The subject of underground parking had been completely abandoned.
We burst the abscess.
"
Wrecked vehicles
In the Truth Meeting, everything goes from dirt to the squat, especially in Basilica.
The problem of wrecked cars stranded on the two levels of this site was put on the carpet: in 2020, 41 abandoned vehicles were spotted including 34 evacuated.
“We also broached the issue of alcoholic homeless people and thefts from trailers,” continues Antoine Mokrane.
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The elected official also confirms the example of blood stains present for several days and cited by stakeholders to identify the lack of cleaning.
A field visit then took place in early January followed by an initial reaction from Indigo: the major cleaning of the Basilique car park began this week.
In Saint-Denis, in the Basilique car park, on January 12.
LP / CG
The regulars of these basements have most of the unpleasant anecdotes in mind.
“Once, a drug addict in need came out of nowhere as I got out of my car, asking for money,” recalls a user.
He was both pleading and aggressive.
When I came back he resurfaced and ended up kicking the vehicle.
"
In Google reviews, comments severely clash with the underground car parks of Saint-Denis and in particular the Basilica that they even compare to a “cave”: “For a few euros, you have the additional right to urine, excrement, waste oil , flood ”, one quips one,“ there are homeless people who go camping ”, another surprised…
22 pedestrian access to Basilica
Across all public indoor parks, attendance is steadily declining, except at Porte de Paris where it has almost tripled between 2015 and 2019. On the other hand, it fell by 5% at Basilique, by 16% at République and at the Station or even 11% on May 8, 1945.
The occupancy rate of the 950 Basilica visitor places is only 50%, except on market days when the site is full.
At Saint-Denis University, it is 30%.
"We would like to stop this descent into hell", sums up Antoine Mokrane.
For its part, Indigo highlights the “extraordinary configuration” of the giant parking lot in the city center to explain the difficulties encountered.
The Basilica site has no less than… 22 pedestrian accesses including 14 emergency exits.
Some of them are voluntarily left open 24 hours a day by squatters.
The design "leaves a lot of intrusion points for wandering people," says Indigo.
For the first level alone, four entrances are open without control to customers returning from the surface.
“It's a labyrinth,” confirms Antoine Mokrane.
780 spaces could be freed on the surface
The delegatee also explains having to deal with "severe degradation and vandalism which makes it very complex to maintain a constant level of quality".
He also stresses that “Indigo agents are not intended to carry out security actions”.
If the attendance curve and the occupancy rates of underground public car parks increased, they would free up 780 surface spaces, according to the calculations of the community.
A breath of fresh air for the public space.
Six underground / covered public car parks: Basilica, Porte de Paris, Station (Marcel-Sembat), 8-May-1945, République (rue des Chaumettes) and Saint-Denis university.
Scrubbing, secure access and even “walled squats”: Indigo's response
The big laundry that started this week in the Basilique car park should last two weeks, given the size of this key site in the center of Saint-Denis.
“Floors, doors, walls, graffiti… Everything will finally be clean,” says Antoine Mokrane.
The deputy mayor in charge of transport and roads said he was satisfied with the “click” that occurred at Indigo.
The city has also requested weekly status updates.
Beyond this scrubbing, the common objective is to make the Basilica park "more airtight" by keeping the emergency exits closed and "entrusting a security office with unlocking the doors", specified Indigo at the beginning of January.
This project to work with Plaine commune would require an investment of more than one million euros according to the delegatee.
In the République car park, the squat areas have just been walled up: they were empty premises next to the stairwells.
For that of the station, the small burnt area at the entrance will be rehabilitated.
It will also be secure, as will the pedestrian access to the covered park from May 8, 1945, where the renewal of video surveillance is also under study.
