The formerly free on-street parking available to students at the Portland campus parking on Brighton Avenue and Falmouth Street has recently been eliminated.
The USM community has not responded well.
“Talk about adding insult to injury!” said Madeleine Winterfalcon, administrative assistant of American and New England studies. “The one close, free parking strip near campus . I’m steamed!”
Forty-nine meters were installed last week, 37 of them along the campus side of Falmouth Street and 12 along Brighton Avenue, across the street from the Alumni House.
The meters were proposed by those attending neighborhood meetings sponsored by USM. The community around USM is concerned with the volume of parking on the neighborhood streets, and thinks the new parking meters may help solve the problem.
In an effort to improve the University’s relationship with the surrounding neighborhoods, University officials agreed to have the meters installed.
The new meters allow a parked car to stay in a parking spot for a period of two hours. “Feeding the meter” is not allowed.
With the parking lot near Sullivan Gym and the Science Building being closed, these two hour meters are designed not only to help long term parking, but allow for more spaces to open up continuously which John Peverada of the City of Portland Traffic Department sites as the main positive effect of these meters.
“Single cars won’t be taking up one parking space all day,” Peverada said. “And the faculty tend to leave their cars all day. The intent is to help everybody by making more spaces available, by allowing a greater turnover, during the course of the day.”
Students and faculty alike are concerned with the lack of parking and now the trouble of having to pay for on-street parking is exacerbating the issue.
The USM Listserv has been bombarded with e-mails concerning the meters.
“What really angers me,” wrote Brian Bernier, a staff member who works in the Science building, “is the fact that the city of Portland has the money and resources to put up parking meters and has numerous full time enforcement officials for the USM area but isn’t able to provide or maintain crosswalks on Falmouth Street between Oakdale Street and the Science building for pedestrians.”
City and University officials say there are other options available.
There are 90 spaces on Baxter Boulevard, adjacent to the former WPOR headquarters. There are also eight new spaces at the Brighton Avenue lot near Payson Smith and 21 spaces near the alumni house.
Also, any member of the campus community can acquire a free parking sticker to park at the Marginal Way lot, which is serviced by a shuttle bus that arrives every 15 minutes. Another alternative is also the Portland METRO service which offers discounts for USM students.
Contributing Writer Melanie Beaudette can be contacted at: [email protected]