Being a self proclaimed lighting nerd, energy savings consultant and former police officer, I admit I am easily drawn to parking garages as a means of helping building owners. Stories like the recent shooting in a parking garage at the University of Missouri really get my goat.

In highly populated cities filled with crime, law enforcement is often forced to be reactive and not proactive. As much as it would be ideal for the police to be everywhere at once stopping everything before it happens, that is clearly not realistic. So they react. They must see something with their own eyes or be dispatched to what someone else saw and be ready for anything.

On the lighting and energy side, experience has shown that building owners and managers don't budget for lighting improvements. Increasing light levels, keeping light levels even to avoid concealment areas and shadows, and ensuring the quality of light for effective videotaping or surveillance just "isn't sexy enough."

Sure, it would be nice to do. But it's the fancy building lobby that attracts the attention and lures leasing.

I get it. I was a business owner myself. "Sexy" sells. It gets you in the door.

But what about once you're in? Women often tell me they are scared walking to their cars after work because their parking areas are dimly lit and often seemingly vacant. (I'm sure some men are, too and just don't admit it). In fact, I was in a basement level of a parking garage yesterday that looked more like a haunted house than a public place.

Take a look at the two parking garages below. It's quite clear which one you'd prefer to walk through at night.

One of my longtime friends is employed by a major hospital police department. They do not have security cameras in the parking garages — they were denied the budget funding. But, even if they did, the lighting would not be effective to identify features and identities.

This friend is on campus, so even seeing a suspicious blob on camera could help him. He has told me that they have a crime problem almost daily in that hospital parking garage. Imagine going to the hospital only to come out and find your car stereo has been stolen while inside.

Picture this: Grandma, who walks slow but is still active, parks and visits her doctor who tells her she is in great health for her age. She happily returns to her vehicle, but since she parked in the back corner so her car door hopefully wouldn't get banged up, she is attacked by someone who saw her coming. Grandma is pushed to the ground, and her purse is stolen.

Am I saying there is a cure-all for these problems? Of course not. More than most, I know that cannot be the case.

But to ignore parking areas because they aren't sexy enough to revamp is like stinking from not taking a shower because no one would notice if you did it anyway. The stink is still there.

Lawsuits, negative publicity and — even worse — casualties that may be avoided should be much more motivation than sexiness. This narrative doesn't even touch the positive points of parking renovations, such as appearance, emotional state of the users, energy savings (translation: more money) and potential utility rebates.

I want to bring sexy back — to parking garages. Are you in? (Insert Justin Timberlake music here).