Camila Fernandez/Assistant News Director
camila.fernandez@fiusm.com
Without permanent parking space at the 109 Tower student apartment, University students residing there have opted for a not-so-easy solution.
Forced to park across Southwest Eighth Street at the University’s parking garages, some have refused to follow this rule. Instead of walking across the busy street, students park all along Sixth and Seventh Streets, causing traffic in the area.
There are only 25 parking spots available, which are mainly used by the tower’s staff.
This was also done to avoid having non-FIU students and faculty from parking in the building, according to Davica Williams, 109 Tower’s leasing and marketing manager.
This has seriously disturbed City of Sweetwater residents who live near 109 Tower, not to mention that students’ vehicles have been towed.
“How can it be that in a city so small as this one, they are going to be build a [15-story] building when the streets are already so limited?” said David Borges, a Sweetwater resident who has lived in the city for more than 30 years.
Borges has identified that those who parked along the streets are FIU students by the University decals on the back of their vehicles.
The new high-rise building had been under construction since September of last year, and opened this fall to lease exclusively to the FIU community.
Borges contacted Student Media informing that he spoke with the city’s mayor, Jose Diaz, about 10 months ago when the Tower was under construction. He said Diaz did not offer much of a solution but for residents to notify the City of Sweetwater Police Department.
“The people who live in this city are very humble, they don’t know how to defend themselves, they don’t know how to find information,” said Borges. “Then [those who govern] crush them as if they were one giant cockroach.”
Borges said he was expecting a pedestrian bridge that would link the University to Sweetwater to be opened near the same time as the 109 Tower.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for Sweetwater residents and University students.
Lorena Rivera, a senior dietetics and nutrition major, said she fears crossing Eighth Street at night when she visits her best friend who lives at the tower. Instead, she parks along nearby convenience stores.
“It was 109’s fault for not really making apartments off campus and not offering at least some parking spots when parking on campus is already horrible,” said Rivera.
Steve Sauls, the former University’s Vice President of Governmental Relations, said 109 Tower is not an FIU housing project. It was designed and built by the private collegiate housing developer, Education Realty Trust.
Sauls has been a big influence on the University’s end to create a University City district in Sweetwater. The University and the city jointly applied and received a $11 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant to build the pedestrian bridge and other transportation projects with other partners.
“FIU is certainly supportive of the project because it satisfies an important housing need of many FIU students, thereby helping them be more successful in their studies at the University,” said Sauls.
He said that with the $11 million grant given by the government for the UniversityCity project plan between FIU and Sweetwater, there will be new streetscape improvements, a pedestrian bridge and a small scale bus service between the city and the University.
“It is envisioned that these improvements, and others over time, will help create a new urban destination for FIU students, staff and faculty to live nearby,” said Sauls.
Despite some negative feedback from residents like Borges, other city residents do not mind students parking near the tower.
“[Traffic] has been more present, but it doesn’t bother me,” said Ramon Matildo, a city resident who lives on Seventh Street. “They don’t have parking, and I know because my son also studies at the University.”
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