The double dog dare post about campus parking

Quick note: Double dog dare, you say? Well, to quickly explain, Dr. Hanson, the professor of this blogging class, hates anything and everything to do with articles complaining about student parking. He says that no matter how good or bad parking really is, students at every campus across the university will complain unless they all have the ability to park within 5 feet of the door to their building 100% of the time. And, since it's been talked about so much, he says there is nothing more that could possibly be written about it that's new or interesting.

But apparently, people still want to write about it anyway, so he's giving us one chance to write a blog about it, and whoever writes the best or most interesting post will win something on Tuesday. I wasn't going to write about it, but why not try? So this is my daily experience with parking on campus.

To begin with, UNK sells more parking spots than it actually has available. I'm not sure what that ratio is, but I've been told that it's not as bad as some other universities. I think it's crap that universities sell more spots than they have, and I remember having a problem with it when I lived in the dorms. Get back late? Oh, sorry, that $50 parking fee you paid isn't going to help you out this time. I would have to park five blocks or more away and walk to my dorm. It sucked. The university sure makes some good money from it, though.

I moved out of the dorms as soon as possible and lived in the apartments surrounding campus. Because I'm a journalism major, the majority of all my classes are in the library, and I lived in an apartment that was nearly across the street from the building. It was closer than the dorms!

However, as pretty much everyone in Kearney knows, the neighborhoods surrounding campus are party havens, which results in 2 problems: it's too loud to sleep, and parking is even worse than campus if your building doesn't have assigned parking spaces. I couldn't take it anymore, so I moved out. Now I live about 8 blocks from campus in a great apartment (that I should probably blog about later, now that I think about it).

Anyway, now that I'm far enough away to be required to drive to school on days that are cold or when I'm running late (which is pretty much every day, really), I'm a commuter. Mmmm commuter ... I hate that word.

Now, I could once again battle with parking and pay $50 for the opportunity to possibly have a spot after driving around through all the commuter lots ... OR I could be a cheapo and park in the neighborhoods. I chose cheapo. And to prove why I believe being a cheapo works best, let me illustrate my usual morning of parking.

In the picture below, the red tinted area represents campus, the red outlined buildings represent where I go to class this semester, and the red lines at the bottom show the places where I usually have to park.

For this example, let's assume I get stuck with the furthest parking spot I've ever had, and I have to walk to the furthest class, which so happens to be this blogging class. The map below shows the route I would take.

Depending on your lifestyle, that might look like a long walk, and it might not. But here's the truth ... it's a little more than 1/3 of a mile and takes about 4 minutes (5 minutes if traffic is heavy on the highway I have to cross). Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself on google maps:



View Larger Map


I have never thought about this being a problem, mostly because it's free. There are plenty of streets with free parking surrounding campus, and plenty of students take advantage of it. And there are still open spots, always! If I had paid money and was given only a few areas to park that might already be full, I wouldn't be too happy about it. So I don't. There are no expectations for the perfect spot, and therefore no chance for me to feel ripped off.

The trick is to take the first spot you see. Don't drive around the blocks looking for the best spot, it's just as bad as driving around a parking lot. It's a waste of time. In my experience, simply parking as quickly as possible and then getting out to walk saves a lot of time and is much less stressful. If you refer again to the maps above, that furthest parking spot I ever had - that area is always open, even during morning class times. Go there. Then take the alley, which connects to another alley, which comes out by Come n' Get It. You'll be right across the street from the library area. It's magic.

Of course, there are some downsides. I'm now one of those same people who used to piss me off by parking in the neighborhoods, and maybe I'm keeping someone from being able to park close to their own home ... but at least I'm not one of those jerks who parks in the 30-minute parking for 36248632548 hours!

So what's the point I'm making here? Is campus parking a problem or not? Well, the point is that it doesn't bother me because I don't deal with it.

Before I end this post, though, I'd like to share a secret with those who may be upset with the parking, saying it's too far away or what have you. I learned about it from some Japanese students who lived in the same party apartment building as me ... FOLDING BIKES!

They're so weird, huh!? I was fascinated when I first saw one. I bought one for my tiny apartment and I actually went all summer with only using my car maybe twice a week. It was amazing.

Even more amazing is the bike parking on campus. It's as close as ten feet to the door! It's everywhere! There's always an open spot!

If you have a problem with parking, ride a bike. Put this thing in your trunk, pull it out, unfold it in less than a minute, and you're on your way. It even has a flat area to strap on a backpack or books.

Hurray!

Kearney crime: does it matter?

So today the class had a debate about the concealed weapon law in Kearney. Apparently there's a state law that allows weapons, but Kearney had a city law the outlawed them. Now the state is saying the city law doesn't apply, which makes concealed weapons legal again. Some people are happy that they can carry concealed weapons, while other people are angry that the state is basically pushing the city's laws aside.

As for me personally, I don't really care. I was never aware it was an issue, and I don't like guns. I would never carry one myself because they scare me, and the thought of a bunch of people carrying them around makes me nervous. But that's not the point of this post.

The point is that one girl in class asked why people in Kearney even care about carrying guns. Her basic argument was that she is from Omaha, a relatively dangerous city, and the crime in Kearney doesn't even compare. Actually, she was almost arguing that any crime that happens in Kearney is basically insignificant, so people don't need guns here.

I will admit that yes, Omaha crime is much more prevalent than Kearney crime, as this graph shows:

I realize the graph is small, but it shows that Omaha's overall crime rate is 198 while Kearney's is 80. The average for Nebraska is 96, while the national average is 100.
(info from clrsearch.com)

But just because Kearney doesn't come close to Omaha in terms of crime rate doesn't mean that crime doesn't happen here. Otherwise, obviously, we'd have a crime rate of 0. Zero. Zip. Zilch.

In October, one of my best friends was mugged at gun point in an alley downtown. There's one gun problem for you. Also, according to the City of Kearney's Police Department, 11 of the last 13 months had reports of shots fired in district 3 (which includes downtown) - and that's not even counting districts 1 and 2.

True, Kearney might not be Omaha, but that doesn't mean nothing happens here.

It's also naive to think that small towns don't have crime. Here's an article about the crime surge in small towns, and here's another that explains how small towns are fighting the crime surge with big city tactics. Granted, these articles are 5-7 years old, but that doesn't make them any less relevant.

And some quick notes before I end: The picture for my post, the book In Cold Blood, is about the true story of a family that was massacred in small town Kansas.

Also, here's Kelcey Fike. She was brutally murdered in Kearney, and the police are still looking for her killer. It's a terribly sad story that I hope will come to a conclusion sooner than later.

3 ideas for local issues

Making Kearney more pedestrian friendly
I like to walk instead of drive, but there are countless blocks in Kearney that don't even have sidewalks. In the winter, the snow from the streets is even plowed onto the sidewalks! Also, it might just be that I live in a rental neighborhood with possibly sketchy landlords, but the sidewalks are never scooped. Isn't there a law against that? I'll have to look it up. I could also write about making Kearney more friendly to bicyclists - compared to almost every other town or city I've lived in or visited, Kearney is the worst.

Milk vending machines!
I know this is probably the most boring topic anyone has come up with, but it's something I think is important. I drink milk every day, but I have to either go wait in line at the Starbucks in the art building, or I'd have to walk all the way to the union convenience store. There are lots of drink machines on campus, but I'd estimate that 95% of them are pop machines. I've seen a couple of water and juice machines, plus the coffee machine in the library. Give me a milk machine! I can't say for a fact if other students would use it, so I'll have to research if other campuses have done it and how it's worked out. I do know that it proved successful to have one in high school when they introduced the milk machine my senior year.

Textbook prices
This is one topic that most students seem to have thought of, and I can agree that it's a problem. However, there are so many aspects to book prices, I'm not really sure where to begin here. I'll keep it as an idea, but I probably won't venture to write an editorial about it.