Campus parking, was Re: The City this week, July 9-16, 2001 AnOccasional View from a

[Debbie Gray <dgray@uidaho.edu>]

While I am not defending or opposing the UofI parking decisions (I work on
campus and have to pay to park there anyway, and those rates are climbing
_substantially_ this year), it is not cut off from 'the people' because
any visitor can get a FREE parking pass by simply going to the Parking
Services Office.  Those free street spots are usually snatched up quite
quickly by people who get here early in the morning to work. It is rare to
be able to get a free street spot. It seems Parking Services has tried to
mitigate that by adding metered parking for short-term visitors who want
quick access by the bookstore, library, PE building, etc. Here is the
website from the latest memo we received about parking:
http://www.uidaho.edu/parking (cmplete w/maps, prices, recommendations,
etc.)

It seems to me that by making the streets near the fraternity/sorority
area into permited parking will perhaps guarantee those people more
parking because you will have to have a residential parking permit to park
there.  Right now it is just a free for all and those people who live
there have to compete with everyone else. Now they will only have to
compete among themselves.

Yes, it would be great if all employees, students, visitors, vendors, etc.
could park for free wherever they wanted. However, that is highly
unrealistic. Wouldn't it be better to suggest workable alternatives rather
than starting a territorial discussion of who owns what parking?

Debbie

On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Duncan Palmatier wrote:

> WMSteed@aol.com wrote:
> > ... P.S.  But I don't have a problem with the University charging parking fees
> > for on-street parking on their campus.
>
> Dear Vision2020:
>
> "Their" campus?! The University is OUR campus. Moreover, the University
> is a guest in OUR city. For those without parking permits, going to the
> University is hard enough as it is; requiring permits to park in the few
> remaining street spots will further cut the University off from the
> people.
>
> Duncan Palmatier
>

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  Debbie Gray      dgray@uidaho.edu      http://www.uidaho.edu/~dgray/
  We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to
  have the life that is waiting for us." --Joseph Campbell
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