200 new parking spaces to ease congestion at BBC

Image by Doug Waldron, courtesy of Creative Commons.

Sofia Galiano/Staff Writer

Additional parking spaces will be available at BBC by this summer to replace the spaces lost to construction in Lot 1 near the Glenn Hubert Library.

The lot will be located in the field east of Academic Two and will provide 200 spaces containing metered, administrative and student parking.

“It’s about time,” said Keren Reznik, graduate student of occupational therapy, who started getting dropped off at school because parking was such a dilemma.

Reznik said she drove to school last year, but she now has her husband drop her off to avoid the hassle of finding a parking space.

Although she has to coordinate with her spouse’s schedule to get to school, Reznik said she avoids the packed parking lots.

In last month’s SGA-BBC town hall meeting, parking initiatives were discussed in spite of the growing partnerships on campus with Royal Caribbean Ltd., Maritime and Science Technology Academy and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science.

Parking was reduced after a portion of Lot 1 on South and North University Drive closed for construction of the Royal Caribbean performance art studio in Dec., causing students to park in the field on Gold Panther Drive and Bay Vista Boulevard.

Lissette Hernandez, director of the Department of Parking and Transportation, said it will be just like other lots on campus and all vehicles will need a decal to park in the lot, no matter if they are MAST students or Royal Caribbean affiliates.

Furthermore, Hernandez said the transportation department has monitored parking traffic, while finalizing construction permits to accommodate the increasing population on campus and to provide additional parking for students and faculty.

“We pay enough for the school to have an efficient amount of parking for everybody,” said Reznik, who thinks it’s great that additional parking spaces are coming to campus since students pay for those services.

Hernandez said the department found Tuesday and Thursday afternoons is when most cars were on campus, many of which overflow in the grass near the entrance of the University.

Jessica Perez, a senior journalism major who has class in the afternoon on those days, can attest to this.

“I stopped trying to park close to the building,” she said.

Perez said around 8 a.m. the lots are empty, but it is during the lunch shift that they become packed.

She said although parking is an issue for The Engineering Center and MMC, it is increasingly becoming an issue at this campus.

“They should just make a parking garage,” she said.

Perez said a parking garage would be a better alternative than creating numerous lots because it would provide more parking while using less space.

She also said while the MMC has multiple parking garages and awaits Parking Garage 6, BBC has none.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous,” she said.

However, during the town hall meeting, President Mark B. Rosenberg said he was not in favor of this idea.

The transportation department will continue to monitor the parking on campus and will decide later if more parking will need to be added, according to Hernandez.

An increase in vehicles on campus can be anticipated in the years to come, however, Hernandez said she cannot determine if or when more parking will be added at this time.

“It’s too early for me to say,” she said.

-bbc@fiusm.com