By snoadmin
Did anybody notice that Cal State Long Beach abandoned the Southern California car culture attitude during the first week of classes? We didn’t.
In fact, it seemed like there were more cars on campus than drivers, especially to the lucky hundreds, perhaps thousands, who tried to find a parking spot in time to avoid being dropped from an already-paid-for class.
Parking the first day of school is always a hassle, but this year it was practically impossible for those who didn’t camp out near the parking lot entrances.
One of the benefits, or call it drawbacks, of working at the Daily Forty-Niner is that we become not only the definitive source for CSULB news, but we double as an informal complaint department.
Many students became instantly irate Tuesday when they arrived and couldn’t find a parking spot after eons of searching.
Some of the worst hit were students from out of town who commuted to campus by car. After fighting the busy freeways from various parts of Southern California, they discovered there wasn’t a parking space nearly anyplace on the planet.
Some students took directions from parking “volunteers” in the campus lots to park at the all-too-convenient Marina. Marina parking is plentiful and free, but wide-spread panic and pandemonium ensued for those trying to catch the campus shuttles back to campus.
“They better have more than one shuttle coming,” one student barked out.
“Yeah, or a city bus,” another responded.
Unfortunately, neither happened.
One shuttle arrived and after students packed in asshole-to-elbow like sardines in a tin can, an enormous crowd was left behind, knowing that they’d never make it to class in time.
Because there was nowhere to park, many students who paid for semester parking passes rightfully felt doubly ripped off. They paid for parking they couldn’t use and for classes they couldn’t attend.
Students put their education in the hands of the CSULB shuttle and the system failed — not to blame the shuttle drivers.
Parking this year is by far the worst and it is no wonder the $25 raise in semester parking — and the 75-cent spike for daily permits — are hard pills to swallow. Not only does it not make sense, it’s almost theft to charge students more for less.
Shouldn’t students who have shelled out the $123 for parking passes be reimbursed for breach of contract?
It is hard enough to get an education in this country while carrying jobs and commuting from Timbuktu, the least of our worries should be parking.
Street parking is hardly an option because area residents — who arranged a no-go zone with the city a few years ago — and early-bird college employees hog the available spaces on Palo Verde Avenue on the eastside of campus. One local parked a double-cab pickup truck, with a 30-foot camping trailer and a boat attached.
The north side of Atherton Street across from the Pyramid offers no respite either because the city has made that stretch a no-parking zone.
A lucky dozen or so manage to get here at sunrise to capture the luxurious half-mile away slots on Bellflower Boulevard, but otherwise, the academic community is left to their own devices if they choose to drive.
Some students have taken advantage of the free bus rides by Long Beach Transit, but we are a car culture largely by necessity and many come from distances that take that choice off of the table.
Not to seem like a bitchfest because we realize the Associated Students, Inc. accomplished a lot to make that arrangement for free public transportation, but it’s not enough. For those who commute from outside of Long Beach, though, the freebie means nothing.
Los Angeles and Orange County, where tens of thousands of students travel from, had no agreement with Long Beach Transit or CSULB.
Certainly, the new parking structures we’re being gouged for will provide some relief in years to come, but we paid to be here now.
As the university plows ahead with promoting unchecked population growth, will there truly be any visible remedy, or is this just a sign of a never-ending parking nightmare?
