Our University is a great institution, but has one commonly voiced flaw — parking. This issue is complained about so much that here, at the paper, we actually avoid parking rants.
However, sometimes the problems related to parking are so significant and unexplainable they must be exposed and voiced. In a perfect world, we would quickly be provided with answers, and news that the University is already taking steps to solve the problem.
Today provided just another example of how parking here can be extremely broken — and how the importance of the issue is continually neglected.
Parking lot 16, the lot in front of the Moore’s School of Music, the art school and the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, is one of the many examples of a lot that is constantly short of parking spots. Yesterday the shortage was even greater than usual.
Lot 16F, otherwise known as the visitor’s section at the front of lot 16, was closed off. Normally, this lot is a place for visitors and is restricted to students and others for free use by a gate that requires paying a charge.
The lot closing furthered parking problems for both visitors and students. Now, you must be wondering, how much of a difference could one visitor lot make? Despite the fact that the lot only holds 61 potential visitor spots, the absence of those spots left visitors and anyone else competing and searching for student spots that are already ridiculously hard to find.
It is unclear why lot 16F was closed and what the University’s reasoning was behind blocking off the available spots. To the frustrated student searching for parking spots, the closure appears ludicrous. Lot 16F was not damaged overnight by a comet, nor did all of the trees lining the area fall over in some sort of freak occurrence. So what exactly warranted this closure?
The University was unable to answer, but chances are it had something to do with money and the entry gate system that was being serviced yesterday.
