Letter to the Editor

I’m sure it was a misunderstanding, but after the recent village parking meeting, folks relayed to me that one individual was explaining how I was the only area resident concerned with side streets because of parking congestion “in front of my mom’s house.” This made for some good jokes. Theresa Jar’d and Jed Dohnut have been teasing me because they know my parents live outside the Village off Mountain Rest. Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever grumbled about my sweet mom and parking in the same paragraph.

In March 2014, I made the following public comment to the village board:

“Village side streets near campus are used as parking lots. This could become worse with plans for a development like Park Point on the south side of campus when those residents choose to drive closer to class.

SUNY charges students to park in their lots. With free parking next to campus provided by village side streets, that dollar amount can be larger so SUNY makes more money per parking permit and SUNY can ignore serving their students who are more sensitive to costly parking passes. SUNY is using village infrastructure that they do not pay for.

Village tax dollars should not be subsidizing the college by providing free parking for a segment of the college population that SUNY appears to be neglecting.”

I’m not in favor of a solution that includes village administered parking passes for residents and forbids others from parking. I think Len Loza’s suggestion to work with the college and encourage the college to offer free parking to its staff and students should be investigated further. The village’s parking enforcement staff are incredibly efficient but I’m not in favor of solutions that require large amounts of additional village government administration. The college already has the framework to issue permits and manage their lots.

This simple solution would take pressure off village side streets and better accommodate more SUNY students.

Sincerely,

Tim Rogers