Parking has always been an issue at Plymouth, and this year is shaping up to be no different. Between the increases in parking pass costs, constant changes because of the construction and the scarcity of prime parking in general, this year is slowly but surely turning into a medium-sized nightmare for anyone with a car. Even efforts to help ease the parking burden on campus are turning out to be less-than- effective. New parking meters installed on Langdon, Merrill and High Street are raising some serious concerns, as the cost to use these meters is four times what it costs to use the same meters downtown.
A difference of 75 cents might seem inconsequential to the people setting these prices, but to the starving artist that is most college students, this is turning out to be a pretty significant problem.
The change in costs was originally slated to be on a 60 to 90-day trial basis, according to Student Senate and PSU Parking Committee member Daniel Fornash. At the most recent Student Senate meeting, Fornash informed the Senate that, due to many student concerns and complaints, the Plymouth Town Selectmen have decided to look again at those numbers after a much shorter time frame. However, the outlook is bleak. The Town Selectmen are divided on the issue, with those for the increased prices saying that they are reasonable and competitive with other parking costs at surrounding New Hampshire colleges and universities.
So what? What purpose does it serve for Plymouth State to compete with other colleges over parking meter prices? It is highly unlikely that the deciding factor between one New Hampshire school and another is going to be their parking meter prices on campus. If that is the only justification that the Town Selectmen can come up with for the higher meter prices, then maybe they need to spend a little more time at the drawing board.
Every rational thought process would lead to the conclusion that having more expensive parking on campus would cause a serious parking space crunch downtown, where parking is already at a premium. The businesses on Main Street already need all the parking spaces they can get to support their businesses, and with Plymouth State students taking up those metered spots because they can no longer afford the metered spots on campus is going to have an unfortunate ripple effect on the already fragile town-university relations.
When push comes to shove, it comes to this. Many people have been working very hard to improve the town-university relations and some great strides have been made. Let’s make sure we don’t take steps backwards by having students take away town parking spaces just because the ones on campus, even though they are closer, are more expensive.