LETTER: Parking answer is higher prices

Editor,

In the Our View on Oct. 15, you cited Parking Service’s capitulation to student pressure as a positive change. Short-sighted interests should not be included on the “positive changes” list. The state mandates that Parking Services be a self-sustaining organization. Did any of the students who argued against later hours in the terrace provide alternative proposals to generate income for parking? How do we intend to maintain parking lots and physical structures that are already behind on maintenance due to cost? The only answer is higher prices. In case no one bothered to do the research, USU has nearly the very lowest parking rates of any nearby university, as shown below:

USU: B Lot $35, ticket $15; ISU: General $40, ticket $20; U of U: U permit $120, ticket $10; UNLV: Student $76.20, ticket $15; BYU: Student $60, ticket $20; SLCC: Student $20, ticket $10; COU: Student $272, ticket $20.

I support a return to reality – services must be paid for. One student wrote that parking should “build up” in order to create more space. Newsflash: A New Terrace has been in the plans for more than a year now. Problem is, how are we going to pay for it? I can only see two solutions: 1) Lobby the legislature to rewrite regulations on parking at state universities (fat chance) and 2) Suck it up: Eat less, don’t use a cell phone, skip cable and pay for your parking or take a bus.

Ricky Fielding