Subject: Letter to Senate Executive Committee
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 16:44:06 -0500
From: "Rajiv Parikh" <rajivdparikh@alumni.rutgers.edu>

Ken:

I have attached a letter to the Senate Executive committee regarding Parking problems at Rutgers - Newark. Although I understand that this is a perpetual problem that will take years, if not decades to solve - I have written regarding a problem that I (as well as many other students) have had. I'm assuming that whether this is an approriate issue for the Senate, is up to the Executive Committee. I have copied others that I felt were appropriate. Please feel free to forward this to anyone else. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

Rajiv Parikh

Text of the Letter referred to above:

March 10, 2003
TO:   Senate Executive Committee
FROM: Rajiv Parikh – School of Law Newark 1st Year Student
RE:  Newark Parking Problems

Dear Executive Committee:

As a former Senator and Student Representative to the Board of Governors I never fully understood the severity of parking problems at Rutgers – Newark, and the unwanted stress and tension they bring to a student’s day. I write to you today, hoping that a Senate Committee will be able to effectively see the flaws in our system so that some day a few years from now students will not have the horrendous morning that I had.

This morning I arrived at Rutgers Newark around approximately 9:35 AM. On most normal Mondays there is a good amount of parking left in Deck II (located on Washington Street) as well as spots in the Washington Street student lot (located on the corner of Washington Street and Raymond Blvd.). Occasionally at this time there will also be a few parking meter spots left on Washington Street and Halsey Street (1 block from campus). Today was not your typical Monday.

Today there was a planned dedication of a Board room at the Center for Law and Justice, so the Washington Street student lot was closed, and no parking was allowed at the meters on Washington Street between Raymond Boulevard and New Street. I will not even discuss my fervent disagreement with the day-long closure of a student lot for a private reception that will be held in the evening. After circling the block on the off chance that Deck I had open spaces (which it did not), I stopped my car right in front of the entrance to Deck II.

For those of you unfamiliar with student parking in Newark: every morning when the Parking Decks fill up, students stop their cars at the entrances waiting for someone to leave so they may enter – I would assume that a large majority of students try to get to school about one or two hours before the start of their class, just to allow for fluctuations in parking availability.

So, as the first person in line, I figured that I would be at the Law school within thirty minutes. To my surprise about five to ten minutes after I stopped at the entrance a girl entered the stairwell to the parking deck. Two minutes later she paid her parking fee and left. It was about 9:45 AM and there were approximately 12-18 cars lined up behind me. Once again, to my, surprise the parking attendant didn’t open the gate – I sat there wondering why I wasn’t able to enter the deck and get the open spot that my peer had left. Two minutes later another car exited the deck. Still, the attendant did not open it up. It was now 10:00 AM, the time I was hoping to be in the Law school library, there were at least two open spaces in Parking Deck II, and there were cars lined up behind me as far as I could see (I saw at least 20 – 25 cars). The parking attendant now appeared from her booth and did the ever so popular “wave away”.

“Wave away” - This is when a parking deck is full and students line up – a parking attendant comes out and “waves” the students past the deck – basically telling them that the deck is full, they’re not getting in, so keep on moving (they don’t of course tell you where to go!!).

So I got out of my car, and asked the attendant why I wasn’t being allowed to enter the deck, when there were at least two open spots. In true Rutgers fashion she responded quite rudely, “I can’t let you in until at least ten cars leave.” I was baffled – I had waited 35 minutes, there were at least 25 other students trying to find parking, there were two spots open in the deck, and I had to WAIT!!!! In a frustrated and annoyed tone, I questioned, “Why do I have to wait if we both know that there are at least two open spots in there?” “That’s the rule,” she responded as she continued to wave to get the line behind me moving. For those of you that know me personally, I feel that I am a generally patient person, but this morning really made me angry. I defied her “wave away” and waited until the tenth car left the deck at 11:15 AM – one hour and forty five minutes after I arrived at Rutgers. I ran to the law school and made it to my first class at 11:20.

Unfortunately for all students at Rutgers Newark this is a daily occurrence. I will concede that there are other parking lots on Essex Street, but that lot closes early, and as a law student I don’t leave school until late at night (well after the lot closes), and it is quite far from campus, therefore making it a scary walk by yourself after dark. The other problem is that I was first in line, had I risked driving to a Essex Street lot that was most likely full, I would have been at the back of the Deck II line instead of the front – a gamble I was not willing to make.

 So after all of that, I propose the following charge, subject to your modification, to look at the perpetual parking problems of Rutgers Newark:

To collect data on Student and Faculty/Staff Parking at the Rutgers Newark campus.

To analyze this data and set forth short and long term recommendations to improve the parking situation at Rutgers Newark.

 The following is a list of questions that the committee may want to address:

1. Why must the attendant wait for a minimum of ten cars to exit before one car can enter? Why is this not one in, one out?
2. Why are official Rutgers vehicles parked in the student decks (i.e. Rutgers Urban Gardening’s Van is in Deck II)?
3. Why do surface lots (although mostly empty) remain gated shut after 5 PM, when night students need to find parking?
4. Does Rutgers – Newark need to establish a fully staffed Parking and Transportation Department (as in New Brunswick), including costs, possible student fees, campus wide buses, and organization involved in this?
5. Why are their many handicapped spaces in Deck II, when it is virtually impossible for a wheelchair bound person to get out of the Deck (unless they go out where the cars exit)? And why can’t these spots be moved to a surface lot that has more room (for example the Fac/Staff lot on Washington, near New Street)?  [I understand that there are regulations regarding handicapped spaces and they are necessary, but from my understanding most handicapped members of the University are given special permits to park in surface lots closer to their buildings.]
6. Why is there no type of Parking consortium between Rutgers Newark, NJIT, and Essex County College? Is this feasible? Is this beneficial?
7. Can there be a yearly or semesterly parking fee for commuting students instead of paying $2.75 daily?
8. Can the City of Newark be encouraged to change parking meters from 1 hour to at least 1 ½ or 2 hours?
9. Why don’t we ticket students that take up two spots in the Parking Decks?
10. Why is the ticket system crammed with red tape (i.e. if you get a ticket, it says to appeal go to Blumenthal Hall (student services building), there they tell you to go to the Police department, at which point they tell you to go back to Blumenthal, etc….)?
11. Why is there no Parking and Transportation Student Advisory Committee? And why is there no email address to log complaints?
12. What is the contractual nature of Rutgers-Newark's parking system?  Are the parking lots and decks owned by the University, a private company, or both?

I would also hope that this committee would have a preliminary report for the Senate by the first meeting of Fall 2003, with a final report in Spring of 2004.

Also, I would like the Senate Executive Committee to know that I have not talked to anyone at Rutgers Newark about any of these complaints/suggestions, and I am not sure what is currently being done at Rutgers Newark, but that I hope to pursue this with the Provost’s office/Parking Department. If the President, Provost, or Executive Committee feels that this issue can be better addressed through a committee based out of Rutgers Newark, so be it. There are also many other factors that I could write about, but this memo would be at least ten pages long. I would like to thank you in advance for this and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Rajiv Parikh
rajivdparikh@alumni.rutgers.edu
973-818-5130

cc: Diner, Roddini, Rivera, Wozniak, Walker-Andrews, Pancholy, Redd, Scott, Vodak