Rant: Parking

So as of a few weeks ago, they finally got the parking deck close enough to “finished” to open it. By “finished”, I mean the bulk of the structure is there, but they’re still actively working on it. Like putting in the sidewalks around it, putting in the street to the south, actually building up the 1st floor interior (where all the “retail” is supposed to go). Oh, and of course installing the elevators. The elevators is a critical part, because students (such as myself) can only park on the top 2 floors (5th and 6th), and I’m lazy. Now they’ve got it to the point where 1-2 elevators work on the opposite side of the building from where I want to be, and appear to be very slowly working on the elevators on the side I want to use. At least they’ve got the sidewalks opened finally (used to have to walk a block down and back to get to the other side of the parking deck).

But hey. It’s there, and it’s open, and I’ve got a permit. So I can’t really complain too much (better than busing it, that’s for sure). Thing is the 5th floor of the deck is generally all parked up and I have to park on the top of the deck (which will almost certainly annoy me more in winter when I have to dig my car out at the end of the day). I had my suspicions before, but now I’m positive. 95+% of the students parking there live close on campus and are using this as their primary parking spot. Which basically translates to the 5th level of the deck generally being full because the cars only move on the weekends. Clincher is I got into work early this morning (and by early I mean I was walking in with the secretaries at 8AM). First 4 levels of the deck were largely deserted except for the handful of secretaries that have to be here at 8. 5th floor was still packed.

Whole thing seems kinda silly since professors and staff generally only park on the first couple of floors, leaving a couple more reserved and largely vacant while the students are all parking up on the top of the deck. Oh well, what do I know. At least parking is allowing some students to park there.