Ava Weintraub
The parking situation has always been bad at Pierce. This is not news. What is news is it’s going to get worse. Parking Lot 1, in front of the Administration Building, will be closed for repairs beginning October 1. Perhaps cheap parking solutions like those from Parkhound could improve this situation.
Thankfully, this isn’t a permanent closure but the effect will be painful for as long as it’s closed. However, this is just one of many parking problems plaguing Pierce College.
It seems that Pierce put the cart before the horse. Perhaps it would have made more sense to build a multi-level parking structure before adding all of the new buildings.
As of September 12, enrollment was up to 23,480 students, an increase of 9 percent over last year, according to Pierce President Robert Garber. Unfortunately, the increased enrollment just exacerbates the pre-existing parking problems.
When I returned to campus this semester I was shocked by the amount of construction going on and how very different the school looked. But the biggest shock came when I arrived the first day looking for parking.
As I entered the Mason Avenue gate I was greeted by a sheriff’s officer telling me to keep driving to Lot 8. “Where is Lot 8,” I asked. “Next to the farm,” the officer replied. The farm?
So the good news is there’s a new parking lot. The bad news is it’s located by the farm. I was fortunate (or unfortunate) to have found the last remaining parking space in Lot 8 that day. I may have been a pumpkin toss away from Victory Boulevard but I was in “preferred parking.”
Sure, the lot is brand new, but there is no shade and let’s face it, it’s just not close enough to most of the classrooms on campus.
This isn’t just a student problem, it also impacts the professors and staff. What used to be ample parking in the Village has dwindled to less than 25 percent of the original spaces.
Now the displaced cars from the Village have to park in Lot 7 spaces – where students park. Well, it’s not like we were using them anyway, right?
If there’s any good to come from this parking nightmare it’s that more students, professors and staff are finding alternative methods of transportation for getting to Pierce, like riding a bike, scooter, motorcycles or (gasp!) public transportation.
Actually, there is one small problem, there aren’t enough bike racks on campus to accommodate more bicycles.
Maybe Pierce should add more bike racks on campus as part of a total solution to the existing parking mess. Plus, bikes are good for the environment. Now that’s a “green” idea.
(Ava Weintraub / Roundup)