No sense in attacking the city

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Glenda Buya-ao Claborne

Want a solution to the perennial parking problem on campus? Maybe we should take a closer look at Odo and those transformers in Star Trek.

Is any scientist out there thinking of inventing cars that can be transformed into a liquid or gaseous form when not in use, then transformed back to solid form when needed?

Nothing is impossible you know. But until that time when we can have Odo cars and transformable cars, we must deal with steel cars and concrete spaces, not to mention the City of Tucson and the UA's Parking and Transportation Services.

So the City of Tucson wants to sell parking permits on about 560 currently free spaces on city streets on and near campus by February next year?

Well, why not?

If the University of Arizona Parking and Transportation Services has become such a self-sufficient office by itself from the revenues obtained from sales of parking permits, why can't the Transportation Department of the City of Tucson aspire to a level of self-sufficiency by also selling its own parking permits? Why can't the city also respond to the simple law of demand and supply?

And the simple fact is, parking spaces are in far shorter supply than the demand.

All these years the UA community has been told by the university's parking and transportation officials that the purpose of the exorbitant price of their own parking permits and parking fees is to force people to take alternative transportation to campus and prevent traffic congestion and air pollution as a result.

So why can't the City of Tucson aspire to the same environmentally-sound goals?

And why is the University of Arizona haggling with the City of Tucson?

Is it really because the poor, poor students now have no chance at a free parking space on campus? Was the financial burden on the students ever a consideration?

No.

The regulatory response to increased demand for scarce resources is not a function of individuals' personal concerns but of these departments' desire to raise money.

And the question we should ask is whether we are served by these departments' method of raising money.

Parking permits and regulations are supposed to eliminate the number of people circling the streets for very few free parking spaces and force people to take alternative forms of transportation. These adjustments in commuter behavior in turn make the flow of traffic more orderly and predictable.

The issue we should examine, then, is not the financial burden on UA students stemming from the city's decision but this: Whether society's need for order is met by the ability of government and public institutions to generate funds.

And this begs another question: Where does one draw the line between generating funds and profit-making? When does generating funds become detached from service to the people and become controlled by purely market forces?

If profit has to be made, does the profit go back to the system that it might serve the people in some other areas other than the area directly taxed?

If the City of Tucson and the university's parking and transportation department are really concerned with service to the UA community, then these are the questions they BOTH need to answer.

And the question the university should answer before leveling charges against the city.

Not all students and employees can buy the right to use parking spaces. Nor can all be served by maintaining a search for parking spaces considering that there are far more students and employees than there are parking spaces.

And not everyone has easy access to bus routes. Not everyone is within comfortable walking or biking distance from campus.

And these are the dilemmas that won't change regardless of whether the city sells its spaces.

Unless, of course, some mad scientist invents a car that can be transformed from solid to liquid or gas and back.

Glenda Buya-ao Claborne is an undeclared graduate student and can be reached via e-mail at Glenda.Buya-ao.Claborne@wildcat.arizona.edu. Her column, Sitting on the Fulcrum, appears every Monday.