This fall, parking permit rates will increase for the first time in four years.
Dorm residents’ permits jumped from $242 to $300. Motorcycle permits cost $70, the same as they did last year. Faculty and staff permits cost $36 more than they did tlast year.
Student Juan Caraveo said the raises are unreasonable.
“It’s really getting ridiculous that I have to pay a month’s rent to park somewhere,” he said. “I may as well just start living in my car for that price and maybe I can sublet the backseat for $150 and cut my losses.”
Former UNM student Lorry Koch, who lives in the University area, said she refused to buy a parking pass last year. Instead, she would park her car on roads near campus and never pay the City of Albuquerque parking tickets.
“The meter maids are bus drivers on a power trip,” she said.
“They aren’t even real police, so they shouldn’t be handing out tickets anyway.”
Koch said she was arrested and had to serve jail time for failure to pay her tickets.
“I had about 37 outstanding parking tickets. They gave me like two days [in jail].”
Koch said her attitude on parking hasn’t changed much, but now she has a driveway near campus, and the city gives her parking passes for her residence.
“I am selling my parking permits for 50 bucks each,” she said. “I have a driveway so I don’t care. And then when you see the meter maid guy, stick it to the man.”
Robert Nelson, associate director of Parking and Transportation Services, said the organization is doing all it can to contain costs.
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“We need to explain why we raised prices,” he said. “The spaces are expensive: it’s about $18,000 a space to build and maintain. We have a fleet of buses that are aging that run from 6:30 in the morning to 10:00 at night and we need to maintain this fleet so we don’t have to buy new ones. It’s about $160,000 a bus just to give you an idea.”
UNM Parking’s most recent project, the Yale structure, opened in October of last year. It holds 780 spaces and cost $14.7 million to build. Permits for the structure cost $499.
Nelson said the key to parking success on campus lies in structures like the one at Yale.
“I think expanding parking on campus is a difficult plan without structures, because if you think about surface parking, just a bunch of blacktop, there isn’t any,” he said. “There is no space left to develop. Parking is going to reduce on main campus with all of the new dorm construction.”
According to the UNM Master Plan, construction projects will add nearly 1,000 student beds to the main campus by fall 2012, putting pressure on an already-strained system. The demolition of the Santa Ana dorms cost UNM roughly 150 parking spots, Nelson said.
