In Support of Booting
(Sorry it’s so long. If it’s too long, maybe feature it as a guest columnist??)
The campaign season is in full swing once again on campus. As students, our votes will be subjected to the candidates’ elaborate displays, catchy slogans, free food and attractive campaigners to persuade our vote. Some of us may even consider the candidates’ promises for next year, forcing us to think about campus issues. This letter is not meant to endorse any candidate, but was only written to discuss one of these issues: booting.
This year, and possibly next year, our fearless student body officers have passionately sought to change Logan city’s booting ordinance and remove the booting practice from the city. These attempts to abate booting are nothing more than vindication for those who have been booted and those who believe they are somehow exempt from the laws the rest of the city quietly abides by. Crime and punishment have gone hand in hand for millennia and continue today. Someone who does not follow rules receives punishment– tickets for speeding, jail time for stealing, eviction for not paying, and booting for illegal parking. Booting is intended to due exactly what it is doing–to punish and dissuade drivers from parking their cars illegally. Booting is so successful in achieving this deterrence that the students’ agitation in being punished and forced to follow rules has spilled onto campus. Our student body officers feel especially indignant and pursue the termination of booting while putting aside the issues of the university like rising tuition, declining enrollment, and declining federal and state funding.
I’m just finishing my third year at Utah State University and I hope to see the booting practice thrive. When you willingly place your property on someone else’s private land, your property is subject to the punishment of the landowner’s discretion, in this case seizure. Personally, I relish in seeing someone’s car booted in my apartment complex because it is that person who displaced me, the tenant who has paid thousands of dollars to the owners of this private property. Countless times this winter, I’ve been forced to park my car in a vacant parking lot blocks away from my own apartment. Seeing someone else’s car seized and disabled by a boot is the one bright moment in my long, frigid and dark walk to my apartment.
Current ASUSU president Les Essig attacked the booting ordinance, taking his case to the city council in October where he casually admitted, “I don’t know all the legal specifics.” In his presentation he cited the trite example of “someone just parked there for five minutes to pick up their homecoming date.” Frankly, this just does not happen. Essig’s example is a fabricated tale meant to further demonize booting. Booting companies do not respond with this type of expedience and typically take hours to arrive. Essig himself even dramatically describes booting as occurring in “an explosive situation that occurs late at night in an uncontrolled environment.” That seems like a strange time to stop by for five minutes to pick up a homecoming date.
Before the responses to this letter begin to flow, think about what will happen if the booting ordinance is successfully removed. If you think a sort of parking nirvana will result, where everyone can park will-nilly in any parking lot without punishment, your vision needs refinement. The towing companies, knowing that parking tickets are ineffective, are licking their lips seeing the booting kerfuffle occurring on campus. The cessation of booting will usher in a towing ordinance. Having a car towed is more than twice as much as having a boot removed. The booting ordinance was put into effect in 2000 because students complained about the towing practice occurring at the time. Efforts to quell booting will reward no one but the towing companies.
The only action that can effectively “boot the boot” from students’ lives is parking where you are allowed to park. Park in the parking lot that you helped pay for, and don’t forget your permit. If you’re visiting a friend’s apartment, park on the street. If the season prohibits you from parking on the street, have your friend pick you up. It’s not that inconvenient; the majority of Loganites and myself have no problem with it. That’s the solution that I propose. And the solution to campus issues? Hopefully, we can leave that up to our student body officers.
Kevin Isakson(435) 881-0807