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Parking wars

Every campus in this city has a sweet spot. Each one has a sweet spot for parking that everybody knows about, and nobody talks about for fear of it being taken away.

At the University of Calgary, where a semester's parking pass for the art parkade sells at a rate of $448 and daily parking can cost up to $20, you can bet your pretty penny there's a sweet spot.

It used to be the Brentwood LRT station parking lot, where the tenacious early student could find a stall in the wee hours, feign taking the train into town and then sneak off in the other direction towards classes.

Then everyone caught on, and soon you had a better chance of parking your car on the C-train than finding an available stall after 6 a.m. Now, even if you do find a spot, there's a $3 fee for using the park-and-ride lot, or the risk of a hefty fine.

After that sweet spot turned sour, savvy students flocked to the Father David Bauer hockey arena. There used to be maybe ten hockey parents' minivans in the lot on any given week day, but the lot soon overflowed with the trademark Civics and Sunfires of the U of C student body.

Authorities caught on. After months of blissfully free parking, students arrived at their cars one day to find City of Calgary parking tickets all over their windshields.

Down south at Mount Royal University, where daily parking costs up to $10 and semester passes can cost up to $180, my sources tell me there are other options.

When I mentioned I was putting the locations of these MRU sweet spots into print, I was cuffed on the head and told to do no such a thing. So, I’ll just say that not all businesses
surrounding campus will actually tow if you park there.

Which brings me to Sears.

With its enormous surface area and proximity to campus, the Sears parking lot is a great big asphalt gift from the gods for those of us who can't afford SAIT's astronomical parking fees.

The chances of 500 Sears' patrons needing all those spots on a weekday are nil and until SAIT students can actually afford SAIT's parking fees, the so-called problem will persist.

For the love of post-secondary education, those who make use of the Sears sweet spot should just be left alone.

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