2008 Woodie Awards
Our View: Parking garage not the best option right now
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Opinion
Ben Franklin once said that in life, only two things are certain: death and taxes.
Franklin never got to experience life at SRU, but if he had been given the chance, he just might have considered adding something concerning students complaining about parking to that adage of his.
As the talk continues on campus, and while you fill out that online parking garage survey that was e-mailed to students, faculty and staff on Monday, the construction of a presumed cure-all-a parking garage-looks fairly likely.
True, on the surface, the idea sounds like a good one. Building a three-story garage would mean that about 210 additional parking spaces would be available for the students, faculty and staff willing to pay for them. The real benefit of adding the garage isn't just the addition of those spots, though, but the potential freeing of 200 or more spaces elsewhere. The garage would be built next to Morrow Field House, about as centrally located as anyone could want given the layout of our campus.
But below the surface? That's where it gets a little more dicey.
With the construction of a parking garage comes several other offshoots that must be considered as well.
First, the spots would be rented out on a first-come, first-served basis at about $45 a month for a 10-month lease, SRU President Robert Smith said earlier this month. This could result in the "university parking garage" becoming a de facto "faculty/staff parking garage." Such a fee may not mean quite as much to professors and staffers with steady flows of income, but to a college student living paycheck to paycheck, a several-hundred-dollar tab for what may or may not even be a "better" parking spot is a little high.
Also, adding a parking garage means extra costs beyond the $2 million or so it will take to build, as a surveillance system would have to be installed to make sure that the place doesn't become a graffiti-covered hangout that smells distinctly of alcohol and urine, as most parking garages do. The presence of either a campus police officer and/or some sort of access control system would also be a necessity in order to make sure that the 200 or so spaces were being used by the folks who ponied up the money for them, and not the same tardy students who are willing to take the risk of getting a slap on the wrist in the form of a parking ticket.
Franklin never got to experience life at SRU, but if he had been given the chance, he just might have considered adding something concerning students complaining about parking to that adage of his.
As the talk continues on campus, and while you fill out that online parking garage survey that was e-mailed to students, faculty and staff on Monday, the construction of a presumed cure-all-a parking garage-looks fairly likely.
True, on the surface, the idea sounds like a good one. Building a three-story garage would mean that about 210 additional parking spaces would be available for the students, faculty and staff willing to pay for them. The real benefit of adding the garage isn't just the addition of those spots, though, but the potential freeing of 200 or more spaces elsewhere. The garage would be built next to Morrow Field House, about as centrally located as anyone could want given the layout of our campus.
But below the surface? That's where it gets a little more dicey.
With the construction of a parking garage comes several other offshoots that must be considered as well.
First, the spots would be rented out on a first-come, first-served basis at about $45 a month for a 10-month lease, SRU President Robert Smith said earlier this month. This could result in the "university parking garage" becoming a de facto "faculty/staff parking garage." Such a fee may not mean quite as much to professors and staffers with steady flows of income, but to a college student living paycheck to paycheck, a several-hundred-dollar tab for what may or may not even be a "better" parking spot is a little high.
Also, adding a parking garage means extra costs beyond the $2 million or so it will take to build, as a surveillance system would have to be installed to make sure that the place doesn't become a graffiti-covered hangout that smells distinctly of alcohol and urine, as most parking garages do. The presence of either a campus police officer and/or some sort of access control system would also be a necessity in order to make sure that the 200 or so spaces were being used by the folks who ponied up the money for them, and not the same tardy students who are willing to take the risk of getting a slap on the wrist in the form of a parking ticket.
Be the first to comment on this story