Editor,
I would like some clarification from Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) Director Clovis Acosta on the impact of increased parking rates.
I understand that this will be the first increase in three years, but in the past three years the staff has not had a pay raise. Yet, the University has raised our health insurance rates and now is raising our co-pays for doctor’s visits. Now PATS wants to chip away at our dwindling paychecks.
To add insult to injury, PATS decides to place parking meter machines in already-cramped lots. In B Lot, we have suffered numerous losses in spaces due to new construction. Anybody on the waiting list can tell you that PATS is not issuing any new permits.
I was to understand that the Yale parking Structure was to alleviate some of the congestion. Now it seems that without warning, PATS can take up the spaces that we are already charged a premium on. We should get a discount if PATS is going to use vital parking spaces for its own gain. It could also save the $1300 it spends on the PATS personalized parking space in B Lot if it charges itself for that space.
I would love to use alternate transportation, but I am not on a schedule that would allow use of public transportation. So I am forced to pay ridiculous prices to park at my place of employment. I would just like to know how PATS can raise parking permit rates and then take parking spaces away.
Eric C. Poncho
UNM Staff
