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Editor:
It's distressing that the university intends to demolish a number of retail businesses along Sixth Street; it's deplorable that they're firing up the bulldozers in order to build more parking structures. Contrary to popular opinion, parking at the UA is too abundant and too cheap.
Parking lots and garages only degrade the neighborhoods where they're located. They take up space that could be used by businesses serving students and local residents. By day they're sterile plains of hot asphalt - by night, lurking grounds for thieves, stalkers, rapists and random thugs.
Worse still, cheap and convenient parking encourages car-commuting, the curse of America's cities. It leads to developers bulldozing Saguaros to build subdivisions and creates congestion on the streets and highways. Commuters demand more and wider roads that degrade the neighborhoods through which they pass and leave thick clouds of smog for the city's residents to breathe.
Tucson is blessed with the terrain and climate ideally suited for walking and bicycling. It has an adequate bus system that could become excellent given enough riders to make excellence an economical proposition. The university should provide ample parking for those whose physical debilities preclude travel other than by private automobile. Anyone else can and should use an alternative means of transportation or pay a cost in money, time and irritation that reflects the damage car-commuting causes to the neighborhood, the city and environment.
William C. Flack
mathematics graduate student
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