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opinion:
our view
Don’t
whine; take the bus
In a few short weeks with the onset of another new academic
year, more than 30,000 students at Cal State Long Beach will
have to endure what has become an unfortunate tradition.
No, we are not referring to the “lions feasting on gazelles
on the Serengeti”-like carnage that is the first week of the
semester in the University Bookstore.
We refer to the annual logjam of “too many cars for too few
spaces” headache of trying to find a parking space during
the first week.
The strength of CSULB has become a weakness.
It’s a great school, so everyone wants to come here.
Problem is, since it’s a great school, everyone wants to come
here.
Given the limited slice of real estate we occupy, we are going
to have to start stacking ourselves like sardines in heavy
syrup.
A new parking structure is on the way, but that will not happen
until this year’s juniors are long gone.
So, what can we do in the interim?
For one, stop whining.
Walk down any heavily populated path during the first week
and count how many students are griping about having to spend
an hour just to find a parking space.
How many of them did laps in the first row without bothering
to check the outer reaches of the lots?
Parking there, students can walk a few steps, grab a slice
at Pizzamania and then hop on a free shuttle bus that will
deposit them a few hundred feet from any classroom.
How many of them overslept, then hoped into their car to drive,
alone, to a campus less than five miles away?
Parking Services has arranged shuttle buses that travel routes
most likely to find students living off-campus for a reason.
How many of them are reluctant to set up a carpool system
with other because they are wont to set their schedules by
someone else’s?
We all spend a goodly portion of our lives here, anyway. Adding
an hour or two will only prevent us from procrastinating ourselves
out of doing homework later.
Park and ride programs are also being set up with the hopes
that students will actually make use of them.
The administration is doing what it can to alleviate our parking
woes, given the space and monetary limitations.
We can do our part to ensure that 30,000+ students do not
mean 30,000+ cars in the lots.
Now, about that shortage of dorm rooms…
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