Parking at the U of MN

From: Ray Marshall [raymarsh@mninter.net]
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 10:12 AM
To: Mpls Issues
Subject: [Mpls] Parking at the U of MN

Boy, I'll bet that that subject line cause a few to click who otherwise
would have bypassed this message.

Remember the late, un-lamented Koller's Garage? Raise your hands if you had
cause to visit them?

Well, anyhow, I've had cause to visit the Mpls campus a couple of times in
the past month and feeling flush, I decided to park in a ramp on my first
visit. Imagine my shock when I got socked for seven buck for a bit over two
hours. There are a lot of places downtown where that might come to a whole
day's tab, I see from the Mpls Parking Web Site.

http://parking.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/parking_rates.php

But back to my gripe. Are well-heeled Ivy League dropouts crowding into the
land grant universities and scarfing up all the great parking spaces?

Now I can see that during the day, the rate must be justified only because I
can't imagine that all those ramps (and they seem to have only one rate) can
be empty, but my first visit was at 6:30 on a Thursday evening. As I dug
deep for the 7 bucks, I noticed that the attendant seemed to be enjoying his
graphic novel. Probably can go through quite a few of them each night.

And yesterday, I decided I needed to spend a few hours in Wilson Library.
Same rate. Seven bucks for two+ hours, and I had hoped to spend four or five
hours there. And I note in the neighborhood that all parking seems to be
limited to one hour without a resident permit. Which is fine. I didn't
check the meters to see if I could get enough time with one fill. Too cold
out.

I see from the parking meter page that all parking meters take that rarity
of rarities, a dollar coin, and something called a Parking Card. That's
good to know.

http://parking.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/parking_meters.htm

Fortunately, I am a short jog from the LRT and I will be able next weekend
to zip over and back for two+ bucks, and get a little needed exercise while
I'm at it.

As a taxpayer, though, wouldn't it make sense to crank down those night and
weekend rates when there are no classes at the U to grab a few more parking
fees and give those attendants a little more work to do?