EDITORIAL

Parking, the word brings frustration to nearly every Temple student.

The university’s administration must know of the problems. They were the ones who approved the building of Student Pavilion in place of a parking lot. They also approved the building of the as yet incomplete dorm over the old Cooney Apartments and its parking lot.

In short, the university has made parking for both commuters and residents a nightmare. Many argue that the fees for the parking lots are overpriced. But, try finding cheaper, supervised parking anywhere else in the city. Aside from the parking lot at 11th and Cecil B. Moore, which charges just $3 per day and night time parking is free, though unsupervised.

Many students chose instead to just park their car in any empty space within a five-block radius. A growing number of students, evidenced by the crime report, return to their car to either find it missing or vandalized.

Don’t expect the problem to go away anytime soon. Temple continues to add to its student population each semester and each year a larger number of these students come from outside the city. One can expect these students to bring a mode of transportation with them.

What are the solutions? Many exist.

First, freshman vehicles could either be prohibited or a quota even set, which many colleges do, but this doesn’t look to solve much of the problem.

Second, sure people hate SEPTA, but Temple has a relatively quiet deal with the much dislike public transportation service. The requirements for the deal: the purchaser must agree to buy monthly Transpasses for September to November or February to April. The deal: both Temple and SEPTA put 5 percent of the cost towards the purchase making it cheaper.

Third, Temple could just directly deal with the problem and add a parking lot or two where it has vacant lots. A number of these lots are within walking distance main campus, just a block or two in any direction.

Construction on campus has only made parking issues worse. If drivers don’t make it to campus by 7 a.m. then the construction workers have taken a large number of the available street parking. Their giant machinery and fencing closes off additional parking spots for students. The problem for students is actually a problem for the workers as well. There is not enough parking on campus for them as well, leaving many to park over in Progress Plaza.

Progress Plaza has spoken to the workers who park in its lot, threatening to tow those vehicles. Surely students have tried parking there only to find their car missing as well. Once current construction ends, the problem will alleviate itself just barely.

Here’s the fact. Students pay Temple. Temple pays its administration, staff and faculty. Temple also provides adequate parking for its employees but not the students.

If and when Temple decides to better the safety of students and their property remains to be seen. Maybe it will take another sit-in on Broad Street to get action taken.

Future Temple News story lead: Temple students park their asses in Broad in an attempt to get parking for their cars.