Editor, Daily Nexus,

After reading some of the complaints about the new increase in parking fees, I have to question if people understand why they are raising the fees. It’s not a corporate lust for more profits, it’s to find a way to finance a new parking structure. If you had not noticed already, UCSB keeps constructing new buildings on our beloved parking lots. Parking on campus is becoming more and more of a problem every day. What solutions have we proposed? Alternative transportation and new parking structures. Unfortunately for us, we’re not allowed to spend federal money on parking structures. That means the university has to come up with the money independently. Since we’re going to lose some 1,400 parking spaces in the next 3 years, we have to build a new parking structure.

People who have written into the Daily Nexus about the new fees have been saying that charging a fee is going to cause “unsafe conditions” because it forces people to walk across campus. Why does it force you to walk across campus? You could always pull out the cushions from your couch and scrounge up two dollars in change or you could pay the $10 a month fee and not have to worry about it. I can understand that you don’t want to pay anymore than you already do, but this is for a good cause. You can pay a little now or not have that opportunity to park later. I’m an engineering student as well, and I’ve spent many a long night in CSIL and the ECE labs. I don’t like any increase in fees unless it’s for a good cause. This is a good cause!

WAYNE DILLY

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