Molly Tumanic

In the history of conflict, few compare with the clashes between the Greeks and the Spartans. So perhaps we can turn to Greek philosopher Aristotle to lend some advice to us as we wade through our Peloponnesian War (or maybe Pelopo-parking War) as the university and students clash with the Third Ward Neighborhood Association over parking surrounding UW-Eau Claire.

Aristotle said, “How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?” I know a lot of talk has gone on in those Third Ward meetings and even at Monday’s City Council meeting regarding this issue. However, there still seems to be confusion on what the students would be willing to do to deal with the problem. Hopefully I can lend a hand to the discussion.

First, the idea of a parking ramp paid for by student segregated fees will never be supported by the Student Senate. The reason is purely financial. A parking ramp will cost roughly $30,000 a spot or $3 a student per spot, spread across our roughly 10,000 students. Building a parking ramp with 100 spots would add roughly $300 to students’ tuition. However, something closer to a 300-car lot would be required.

Also, please do not expect the UW-System to cough up the cash for the project. We cannot fix the problem of the lack of oxygen in Schneider Hall classrooms, let alone worry about a parking ramp. We must look to other solutions, such as limiting parking passes to freshmen and sophomore on-campus residents to special needs cases. This will free upper-campus parking spaces for “S” pass students, along with lowering the cost of parking passes to allow more students to purchase them.

What has surprised me most about this debate is that the people who may be the most affected by a parking ban in the Third Ward have not been a major player in the process. I refer to the Historic Randall Park Neighborhood Association, located around Water Street and Fifth Avenue. I firmly believe that students park in the Third Ward due to financial reasons and the cost of a parking pass rather than the convenience of the location of the Third Ward. Eliminating parking does not solve the root of the problem and instead will push the parking problem into other areas of the city further into the Third Ward and into the Historic Randal Park neighborhood.

This is where the City Council must step in. I agree with the residents of the Third Ward in their desire to control what goes on in their own backyards, but the overall effect on the city will be negative. Pushing problems associated with the university into areas that receive little to no direct benefit from the university is not right. To summarize City Council member Berlye Middleton, “people who live by airports must deal with planes, people who live near railroads must deal with trains.” People who live near universities must deal with traffic.

In my opinion, the April 6 election has given us a City Council that may be more positive toward student and community rights on this issue. This brings us to another issue that typically is overlooked by both sides of the parking issue. Anyone from the community (including property tax paying homeowners) who comes to visit the university for an event or to meet someone during business hours and does not have a parking pass probably parks on the streets in the Third Ward. Those community members helped pay for the construction of the street and their maintenance, so then do they not have the right to park there?

Tuesday night the City Council said “yes”. By a vote of 4-5 they defeated all three proposed parking restrictions on Wilson St., Garfield, and Roosevelt Avenues. Hopefully this can be a signal to the Third Ward that restricting parking is not the answer and to students that continuing to be politically active in the City does pay dividends.