Parking: From Very Challenging to Absolutely Heinous?
Ryan Monday, January 4, 2010 at 04:38PM 
December 23rd, Transportation and Parking Manager Paul Cappadona emailed those with carpool parking permits: they will have to park in white spaces from now on. According to Cappadona, some 50 carpool permits have been issued university-wide. While it is not clear how many of those 50 permits are typically used on the Newton campus, anecdotal evidence suggests the number may be close to 30.
Those with carpool permits are not pleased. Said 3L Kerianne Byrne, “everyone who has ever driven to school and parked in the white lines has had to deal with an extra 20 minutes added onto their commute in order to drive around and find a spot. That has never happened to me in 2 years of carpooling.” She added, “what exactly is the point of having carpooling now?” Fellow 3L Joseph Schoenfeld questioned the basis of the decision, noting that he has “never not found a yellow spot,” but “frequently struggled to find a white-lined one when i didn’t have the carpool permit.”
The effects are certain to extend to all students who drive, and not just carpoolers. Contacted for comment, Cappadona asserted that the decision-makers “believe there are enough white spaces to absorb the carpool permits on the Newton campus.” Asked what prompted the decision, Cappadona said that the “change was made because of an availability issue in the yellow spaces on the Newton campus.”
The Law Students Association works frequently with Deans Wylie and West and main campus administrators to monitor parking; according to LSA President Lauren Graber, one potential cause of difficulty is that parking policy is often predicated by the needs perceived by main campus administrators. This particular change, however, seems aimed specifically at Newton.
When the Fall 2008 semester began, parking was extremely challenging. Availability was impacted greatly by the size of that year’s entering class, the Class of 2011, which is about thirty students larger than the classes before and after it. The increased demand seemed to throw the delicate parking ecosystem out of whack. “Last year the parking was a much bigger problem, with students having to park on side streets and apparently trying to park at the other schools next to us,” said Graber. In late September of 2008, the LSA arranged to have several spots (ten, I believe) converted from yellow to white to help “alleviate the crunch.” Related articles from Fall ‘08 can be found here and here.
Without a good approximation of how many more people will be parking in white spaces on the Newton campus because of the recent decision, it is difficult to gauge whether parking this semester will rise to an intolerable level of difficulty. According to Graber, the LSA will monitor the situation closely, and is poised to act if the scope of the problem proves serious.
When asked, Cappadona did say that students currently tied up in carpool permit arrangements will be allowed to “break” this commitment and purchase their own permit. If anyone so chooses, his department will work with him or her so that they will pay the difference between their carpool share and the $240 cost of an individual permit. While this accomodation is perhaps mandated by basic fairness, it also leaves open the possibility that the number of white space parkers will be further increased.
Eagleionline.com has not been able to identify the impetus behind this carpool permit decision; it seems that it was not pushed by the Law School administration, but we have been unable to confirm this. How did Cappadona know of the “availability issue in the yellow spaces” in Newton? It also seems unlikely that the number of displaced carpool cars will have no impact on white space availability. If we were only talking about ten cars or so, there probably would have been no reason to make a change. We can only wonder if other options, such as turning some spots back to yellow, were considered and rejected. Since the change is a response to congestion on the Newton campus specifically, yet is a university-wide change, one might conclude that most of the students affected park in Newton.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspects of the decision are the way in which the information was disseminated, and the murkiness of the reason stated for change. Although the decision is likely to affect all students parking in Newton, notice was only emailed to holders of carpool permits. The email was sent on the 23rd of December, while Mr. Cappadona was unavailable, and when students were unlikely to respond. “Overall, the vague and incomplete explanation is quite upsetting; what does ‘parking space limitations’ mean?” said Schoenfeld. “It’s like saying that, ‘due to highway capacity limitations, there will be traffic on I-93 during rush hour.’”
Reader Comments (34)
Nice blog entry. This seems like BS. I tried calling P.J. the afternoon we got the email, but he was on vacation. BS.
I call BS on Kerianne Byrne. An extra 20 minutes? I have never once spent anywhere near that looking for a spot. Give me a break. I can certainly understand the frustration of carpoolers, but the parking situation this year has not been anywhere as difficult as it was last year. I think it is bad to eliminate the carpool parking (though I don't use it myself), but the complaining over parking generally has nothing to do with a lack of parking, it has to do with laziness over having to park over near the Newton Day school and walking. That is a problem, but it is not the problem people are complaining about. There should only be as many parking permits as spaces available for them. If the school is selling more permits than spots, that is the issue that needs to be addressed.
That said, I never had to park near the day school once all fall semester. There is no lack of parking. Has anyone questioned as to whether there were complaints from faculty over no parking spots for them in yellow spots that might have contributed to this decision to eliminate the carpool parking in yellow spots?
While probably the majority of carpool permit owners use their permits as intended, my anecdotal experience suggests that the practice of single drivers abusing carpool permits was far from isolated.
Alllll right.
2L --
Make no mistake, in early fall of '08 at very peak times (Tues-Thurs, 930-11 or so), there were sometimes NO spots at all. This is why some people parked on neighboring sidestreets (and Lauren confirmed that for me).
You're right, we haven't had the same kind of problem since then. What changed? 10 spaces were changed. 10. What if 30 cars are displaced by this change? This article is a lot less about what parking has recently been like, and more about what it's about to be like.
It's my fault as a writer if this wasn't clear, but Kerianne parks with a carpool permit. And she's a 3L. Her experience parking in white spots is largely confined to 07-08, before you were a student. And to the extent it wasn't that long ago, it must have been because the yellow spots were all full. I can't remember this happening at all, and I imagine this happened only a few times. So I think it's safe to say there were big events or something whenever that happened, in which case the white spots would also be likely to be quite rare, as well. I don't think you're justified to call BS...
Of course there was SOME reason for this change, and yes it must have been faculty complaining about scarcity. I cannot recall ever seeing this, and in the last five semesters I've been on campus 5 days a week. Even if faculty complained, and even if there was a scarcity issue, would not a better solution have been to paint several white spots yellow? Or not park shuttle buses in the way of yellow spots?
One Alum --
OK, sure, definitely there's at least a handful of instances of carpool permit "abuse." But your anecdotal evidence leaves only two possibilities:
If your anecdotal evidence is extensive, and you know of, say, five or six instances of abuse, than aren't you pretty sure that of the 50 total carpool permits, a significant majority park at the law school? And abuse beside, we definitely have a problem if more than 30 students are suddenly parking in white spots. Plus, none of the phantom carpoolers are phantom people. They still stand for people who aren't parking on campus. In a sense, anyone "abusing" the system was doing white space parkers a service, by alleviating demand on those spaces... unless there were truly so many of them that the yellow spaces were often completely full (which I definitely dispute).
If your anecdotal evidence isn't extensive, and you only know of a couple of examples, then... we only know of a couple of examples, right?
perhaps, 2L, your experience has been different from Ms. Byrne's because you have earlier classes. it's been my experience that is very difficult to find a white-lined space after 10am, when the entire 1L class has arrived, and it does in fact add at least 10 minutes to the morning commute.
the bottom line is that there is plenty of availability of yellow-lined spaces, and not enough white-lined spaces. i am able to find a yellow-lined space at any time of day or night that i come to school. however, this is anecdotal.
when i was sitting in one of the faculty assistant offices in east wing, i overheard an assistant complaining bitterly about students who "abuse" their carpool permits and hog the yellow spaces. i imagine that this move was precipitated by their complaints. i don't understand this. just because a driver frequently gives rides to another student doesn't mean he ALWAYS does, so seeing a solo driver with a carpool permit parking in a yellow space doesn't mean he is abusing his permit. it just means that at that particular time, he had no passenger.
2L: I believe Ryan clarified my point very well. I am only able to compare the impending situation to that of my 1L year in which one left for school plenty early, drove around to find a spot (often down by the Day School) and then hike up to class. Compared to the closeness and availability of the yellow spots, car pooling is a dream; probably why I have been doing it for the last few years. I am not too proud to go back to parking down the hill, behind the dorms, but just remember when you can't find a parking spot on Monday morning, it's because I am parked in yours :)
3L:
I had a 1pm class Tues/Thurs this past semester as my earliest class and you are right, on those days parking was tight, but I didn't WASTE ten minutes of my commute by looking in the parking lot behind the library or on the lower lot down the steps because 90% of the time, it was full. I learned quickly to just go to the back near the fields and always found a spot there or by alumni house. If parking is tight, why would you waste time looking in lot A? It is full by 8am on most days. The fact is people are wasting their own time and that is frankly their own issue. Save the time by parking in the lower lots on busy days and bundle up for the chilly hike up the hill.
With this change, that might become an issue as Ryan pointed out and I tend to agree with you that I rarely came to school and didn't see open yellow spots. I just think if the complaints were coming from faculty, it is unlikely you'll see them hand over more yellow spots to students (by having them painted white).
i knew some people with carpool permits that carpooled with other bc graduate students. since the carpool permit doesn't require that you go to the same school, it's entirely possible that you drop someone off at main campus and arrive solo all the time to the newton campus.
The issue with this new policy that I have is not "laziness" but when coming to eveing clases, walking up the stairs from the back parking lot with ice and snow covering the stairs is extremely dangerous. The law school generally shovels the snow at best once in the morning. So if this is the case, the school should at least make a damn effort to ensure that the steps are de-iced/ snow cleared.
Also, why would it be so preposterous for professors to walk from the back parking lots or is it that advanced degrees equal some sort of special treatment? What the hell, we are all adults working hard- the professor teach and get paid the student pay- so shouldn't the consumer derive the most benefits.
I have a pool permit, and umm, why did I get it? It's cheaper than a regular parking permit, yes, but I can't park over the summer (and a summer pass is more expensive than a standard yearlong pass). There is no benefit in pooling anymore, and I also feel suckered after this ridiculous bait and switch.
Not cool.
< /rant >
This is almost as bad as the time the school tried to switch to Pepsi products!
On the plus side, it will raise more money for PILF by making their parking spot auction worth the $1000+.
"Also, why would it be so preposterous for professors to walk from the back parking lots or is it that advanced degrees equal some sort of special treatment? What the hell, we are all adults working hard- the professor teach and get paid the student pay- so shouldn't the consumer derive the most benefits."
One would have to assume that professors (being generally older than students) are just as able-bodied, and if not, they should have a handicapped permit. Further, I'd surmise that students carry more textbooks worth of weight than prof's do.
I am a double eagle and I have been dealing with the BC parking office and cappadona for many years. During undergrad I needed to have a car on campus for a few reasons (personal and a great internship). Every encounter I ever had with the office or cappadona has been incredibly frustrating. Logic is not their/his strong suit. To me the office could function the same with a drunk monkey behind the desk. I can't say I'm surprised by another lame decision from that guy. I hope this doesn't create any problems because unlike my experiences trying to park on the main campus (undergrads can't use the garages) I have actually been satisfied with parking on newton this fall.
You people want the professors to walk from the back parking lot? Seriously? Keep dreaming. And here's a tip, at your first job, the boss will have a better parking spot for you too.
Professors shouldn't have to walk because they are the professors. Get over it. I'm fairly certain the avg 24 year old has an easier time getting up the hill than most professors.
No wonder America is full of fatties...24 year olds already complaining about having to walk .25 miles to get to school.
B,
$40k/yr + $240 or $100/yr for parking pass, +.25m walk to school is the complaint.
I have no problem getting exercise, I'd just rather do it on my own time. What the hell are we paying for anyway? Does anyone know if the neighboring streets in Newton ticket? If they don't it seems like the walk is about = from some spots and it'd be free..
Also, not all law students are 24, and for some they are carrying 1/3 of their body weight in textbooks..
Ah, gone are the days of 2005 and their dedicated carpool-only spots.
Though some solo drivers might abuse the pool permits, don't forget about the law students who carpool with grad students from the main campus. They exist!
Good luck, everyone! Newton Parking Lot -> North End or Back Bay!
LLL,
What does tuition have to do with anything? You are not owed anything b/c you pay $40K/year to go to BC Law. We all do. Some people don't have cars and actually have to take a bus to school, carrying their books with them.
I have parked in the very back spots near the Newton Day School and it is NOT that far. Please everyone, stop your whining. It's so pathetic. I can understand if you're a carpooler being upset about this change. But the complaints over having to walk far are lame. Get rolling luggage, put your books in a locker. There are so many ways to solve your issues that it is insane people are complaining about having to walk from a parking lot.
Absolutely no sympathy whatsoever. Life is not as hard as you'd imagine.
B --
You're certainly entitled for your opinion, but I want to point out that there are two issues here: whether it's fair/the right move to deny yellow spots to carpoolers, but also whether white spots will now be so congested that occasionally even the very back spots near the Newton Day School are not available. Don't believe me if you like, but there were definitely times at the beginning of last school year that this was the case, and there were literally no white spaces available on campus. Even if there were only one or two, it's not like they're all lined up in a straight line; that potential free spot could be anywhere.
Anyway... your comment seemed to refer to the effect on carpoolers, and not really on the effect on everyone else.
For the hell of it, I'm going to take this opportunity to bring up that in terms of this parking gripe, I'm not motivated by my own discomfort. I took the T this last semester (after I broke my wrist and couldn't bike) from Cambridge, and although I'm going to be driving this coming semester, I have clinic and will only ever be parking on campus late in the afternoon or in the evening... I do think, however, that the change for carpoolers will effect everyone more significantly than many believe, and that it didn't have to be that way. And I like the idea that carpooling was effectively encouraged through the yellow spots privilege, if not perfectly encouraged.
Ryan,
I was not taking on anything here but the idea that having to walk from the back lots is a pain (whether the person is a carpooler or not) and the comments specifically referencing professors not being entitled to the yellow spots because we pay tuition or something. I wasn't addressing the availability of parking, I was addressing the inconvenience of having to park in the back lots some people seem to be griping about here. If I were a carpooler, I'd be upset and I think they have a genuine gripe. I don't however think anyone should gripe at having to walk from the other side of the field hockey fields...it really just isn't that far. Obviously if this switch means even that isn't available - that is another issue - and one I was not referencing.
My original post had nothing to do with being a "fattie" and not wanting to walk but again I assert that it is dangerous to walk up icy ass stairs in the dark. So prior to responding, take the time to read the post more thoroughly geniuses law student.
Original Post for the Geniuses that are so busy engaging in analytical gymnastics and fail to READ:
"The issue with this new policy that I have is not "laziness" but when coming to eveing clases, walking up the stairs from the back parking lot with ice and snow covering the stairs is extremely dangerous. The law school generally shovels the snow at best once in the morning. So if this is the case, the school should at least make a damn effort to ensure that the steps are de-iced/ snow cleared.
Also, why would it be so preposterous for professors to walk from the back parking lots or is it that advanced degrees equal some sort of special treatment? What the hell, we are all adults working hard- the professor teach and get paid the student pay- so shouldn't the consumer derive the most benefits."
Also, in response to professor not walking, I grew up and live life with the theory that NO ONE is entitled to a damn thing, and yes that even means the professors that get their asses kissed my over eager students.
Why can't BC Law car owners park on the public street south of the parking lot? I know that the people who reside on that street don't like it, but so what?
I seem to recall that the residents there agitated the police for some no-parking signs -- are they currently there? Are there absolutely no places to park in that residential neighborhood?
P.S. The reason I have little sympathy for the residents south of the law school is that they likely knew what they were getting when they bought houses next to a relatively big law school. I think they should have expected an increase in traffic and parking because of their close proximity.
The fact is someone has to park in the back. And whoever that is would certainly be more likely to prefer parking close to the school. And yet, we all pay the same (in tuition and in parking fees).
Life isn't fair. The sooner you realize that (and that professors should and are entitled to preferential parking based on their status as professors), the better your life will be. Many law schools do not even provide parking for their students.
Icy stairs have absolutely nothing to do with parking and is an entirely unrelated issue. Have you complained to anyone about them? I'm guessing the school assumes as an adult you can understand if there is ice at 9pm there is a small chance it'll be on sidewalks/stairs and will use the handrails that are provided rather than expect the school to pay to have someone there constantly salting the steps 24 hours a day. I'm usually stoked to even get a parking spot in that lot. I'd rather maneuver icy stairs than walk from the lots on the other side of the fields.
B, I think you're failing to address the practical effect of the change in parking policy: it's not that "someone always has to park in the back, so why shouldn't that person be you," but that Cappadona has chosen to give carpoolers and non-carpoolers equal priority when it comes to parking spaces. The previous policy, as we all know, favored carpoolers, based presumably on the school's commitment to preserving our "green" environment, and also on the school's desire to decrease the number of cars in the lot. I think it's a very good idea to encourage people to carpool, and Cappadona's policy is a step backward, not forward. By treating carpoolers equally with non-carpollers when it comes to parking spaces, Cappadona is providing *less* incentive for people to carpool, when he should be providing *more* incentives for students to do so.
Cappadona's policy is like making the carpooling lane on the highway open to everyone because people don't want so much traffic on the other lanes.