 "Photo: Jeff Creech")
Recent discussion between members of Oxford City Council and the Oxford Police Department may cause a price increase in the uptown parking garage.
The idea to increase the parking garage rate originated from Oxford City Councilor Doug Ross who approached Oxford Police Chief Steve Schwein, in an e-mail in late October. Although the price will not be raised to $1 to equal Miami's parking garage rate, Ross intends to urge Council to raise the price to 50 cents.
"Miami is making a killing off of parking and Oxford has bills to pay too," Ross said. "Oxford is so far behind in terms of how much they make compared to Miami. I think the price should be equal to what the university charges."
Ross also said he hopes a parking price increase will dissuade students from bringing their vehicles to campus. He firmly believes students should not be permitted to have their vehicles during the school year. Ross said students cause much of the vehicle congestion around the city.
But Miami University sophomore Taylor Robinson said that a small price increase for uptown parking would be unlikely to deter students from bringing their cars to school.
"I think students are going to bring their cars to campus because they want to," Robinson said. "Based on the kinds of people that go to this school and the amount of money that people seem to have, a 25 cent increase is not going to deter students from bringing cars to campus."
Robinson also noted that owning a car shortens travel time, which permits more time for academic activity, whereas students who walk to their destination have less time for study and other activities.
If the price is raised, an ordinance must be established and voted on by City Council. If passed, the price raise will go into effect 30 days after approval.
Ross noted further importance in raising the rate because it funds important developments around the city such as a new Oxford Municipal Building and a new city pool.
In addition, raising the price of the parking garage could aid in reducing Oxford's financial debt.
"We have only one full-time fire department personnel," Ross said. "We don't have enough money for urban forestry and it takes money to pave the roads. If we're going to have any sort of pocket parking in the future, we need to have money for that."
Pocket parking is a term referring to small areas developed for long-term or short-term parking.
Several students raised concerns about the level of competition that could be created between Miami's parking garage and Oxford's if the parking rate of the uptown garage
is raised.
But because Miami's parking garage targets campus parking and Oxford's focuses on uptown parking, competition between the two should not arise, according to Richard Keppler, director of Miami's Parking and Transportation Services.
"If they're changing their rates uptown, that really doesn't affect us," Keppler said. "There wouldn't be an impact down here that we would respond to by changing our rates."
Schwein approached the issue from a corporate standpoint, saying the city has certain responsibilities when budgeting city funds.
"Miami has a parking garage for $1 an hour, four times our rate," Schwein said. "So we feel like we're giving away parking. The city is a business and we should be treating our resources and expenditures as if they were our own.
