By Alyson St. Amand
The Renaissance Parking Garage on Columbus Ave. will be open 24 hours a day on a trial basis spring quarter to help alleviate some of the school’s parking problems.
The garage provides parking for Northeastern faculty, staff, students and the public.
Director of University Communications Ed Klotzbier explained that the trial will run through the end of the quarter to see if it is the answer to the problem.
He said that issues about parking and snow removal as well as the concerns of students unable to find parking spaces after returning from co-op jobs came up several times at budget presentations.
“If this works it will be a real benefit to students and it will alleviate some of the parking problems,” Klotzbier said.
Senior civil engineering major Luc Saroufim, a commuter student, always has trouble finding a parking spot.
“There is a severe lack of spots around 10:00 a.m.,” Saroufim said. “At night there is still a lot of traffic and double parking. Now with the Renaissance Garage open I can always find a spot.”
Klotzbier said that if this works they will plan to continue additional parking for overnight students.
Some students do not feel that allowing overnight parking in the Renaissance Parking Garage is a good idea however.
Computer science graduate student Seth Hoyt is worried that if students are allowed to park overnight, less spaces will be available to students arriving in the morning.
“People who are parking overnight will take up spaces that could be used more efficiently for people moving in and out more often,” Hoyt said. “I would suggest overnight parking be allowed only on certain floors.”
Senior pharmacy major Courtney McQuade thinks that finding parking on the weekends is the bigger issue.
“I don’t think they should allow people to park on the weekends who don’t have a decal,” McQuade said.
Klotzbier attributed the recent construction on campus to part of the parking problem.
“The more you build, the more you are going to lose surface parking,” Klotzbier said. “It is an issue that’s not just recent. As we built residence halls and academic buildings we had to build places for people to park their cars.”
Currently, regular day students are paying $350 a year or $185 a quarter to park on campus and an additional $270 per quarter for overnight parking. The price will remain the same to park in the garage.
“Overnight parking was tight,” said Business Manager William Mallon. “We figured we would open the Renaissance Parking Garage to take care of demands we had on capacity.”
