To the Editor:
We don’t have a parking problem at USM’s Portland campus. We have a commuting problem.
Single occupancy vehicles have been congesting our parking lots for years. Now, all students might have to pay $4 per credit hour because of the selfish driving habits of some.
I was appalled when I read Editor Steve Peoples’ editorial on the proposal to fund the new parking garage project with a mandatory parking and transportation fee. I thought that there must have been some misrepresentation of the facts. I had hoped there would be a huge parking decal increase, which would provide a strong disincentive to driving a car to school and might actually give incentive to seek alternative methods of transportation, such as the bus, biking or even carpooling, perish the thought.
I never thought that I, who don’t even use the parking facilities, would have to subsidize other students’ commuting habits. I was wrong. After some investigating, I learned that the executive editor of The Free Press was right on the money. We all must pay.
How could this gross inequity be true? A mandatory fee is the only way the city planning board is willing to allow the University to go ahead with the parking garage project is what Sam Andrews, chief financial officer of USM told me.
Why? I wished I had asked that too. Andrews also said that the city thinks that USM’s commuters will just seek their parking in the surrounding neighborhoods and further congest the streets if the University simply raised the parking decal fee.
And what about the 600 spaces that we will lose in the short run while the garage is being built? It’s only for a year Andrews assured me. I sincerely hope so.
I realize there are many single occupancy car drivers that have no alternative but to commute in the manner they do. They drive long distances from isolated areas. There are others that couldn’t afford a $100 or $200 parking decal. I certainly would be willing to pay a little to subsidize transportation costs, but not $4 to $8 per credit.
In the meantime, I’ll still use my bike to get to school, so you can have my parking spot. If and when the mandatory fee goes into effect though, I’ll drive my single occupancy vehicle to school, and I’ll be battling you for a spot. I paid for it after all.
Stuart C. Koretsky
junior, media studies major