Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

Letters to the Editor

Parking regulations vaguely enforced

Miami's parking system reminds me a lot of the book Catch-22. Here is a system where maps issued by the parking office are incorrect and restrictions on signs are written in invisible ink.

A couple weeks ago I parked my car on Oak Street to go to an evening class. I parked in an area designated as "Red Permit Only, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m." and seeing as it was after 4 p.m., I thought I'd be in the clear. I returned to find a ticket slid under the windshield wiper. Not understanding my offense, I went to the parking office the next day where the woman, who was generally friendly and nice, explained to me that even though the sign said one thing, it really meant another. What was apparently written in invisible ink was that at all other times, a permit is required. Seeing as I live off-campus, I did not feel the need for an on-campus parking permit. I inquired as to where I could park and when without a permit to prevent future ticketing. The woman was nice and waived my ticket because it was my first one, but continued to give vague responses as to where I could park. I learned that had I parked on the other side of Oak Street, although it bears more restrictive signs requiring yellow and blue passes, I would not have gotten a ticket. Why this is true I am not sure. I took a map of the designated parking areas on campus to take home with me.

My friend found these maps to be false. She has a blue pass, which should generally allow you to park wherever you feel like it, except in red areas during the day. But it was not so. Before parking her car overnight in an area denoted on the signs as a blue lot, she consulted with a local police officer, who agreed that she should be able to park there. A few days later a friend informed her she had two tickets on her car for parking in a "yellow zone" with "no overnight parking." She took a photo of the sign and brought it to parking services. At parking services, she was handed the same parking map I had picked up. Not only was the area she parked a blue area, but the slashes indicated that student parking for all passes was available after 4 p.m. Despite this overwhelming physical evidence, parking services informed her that she was incorrect and would have to try to appeal her $110 fine, which may or may not be approved.

I understand that Miami raises revenue by charging for parking passes and ticketing. However, I fail to understand why they would spend so much money on parking garages that are too expensive for students to afford and much less economical than buying a parking pass. It seems that the money could have been saved and students could be spared from arbitrary ticketing. The best solution seems to restrict parking to the red faculty passes during the day and open the garages up to students with parking passes after hours. Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy in this?

Allison Plavecskiplavecad@muohio.edu

Increase in poverty larger than stated

Your Miami Student banner headline of Sept. 5, "Butler Co. poverty rises 3.7 percent" has the math completely wrong. The actual one-year increase in the Butler County poverty rate, according to the data presented in the article itself, is closer to 40 percent.

The second paragraph of the article reads, "Recent census estimates show a rise in the percentage of Butler County citizens living below the poverty level from 8.7 percent in 2004 to 12.4 percent in 2005."

Twelve point four percent minus 8.7 percent equals 3.7 percent, but that 3.7 percent does not express the actual percentage increase in statistical poverty. The 3.7 increase (at this point not truly a percent figure but a math figure) in poverty must be measured against the 8.7 figure from 2004. Rounding up for the sake of simplicity the poverty rate increased roughly four-ninths in one year in Butler County, vastly more than the headline figure of 3.7 percent.

Further, semi-anecdotal evidence reported later in the article supports this view. From the fourth column of the same article: "Jeff Diver, executive director of Supports to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF), said SELF served about 7,400 individuals at this point last year but has already served 11,000 people this year."

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Other speakers in the article report similar trends. If the headline had read "County poverty rate up by a third in one year" it would have been more nearly accurate. And conservatively so. You do the math.

Despite the appropriate prominence given the story itself and the excellent photo of the Oxford Mobile Home Park (which I toured this summer), the headline drastically under represents the challenges we face, not the least being the correlation between poverty and crime. There is an old maxim: "Necessity knows no law." As the late great Oxford Mayor Caroline Hollis was often wont to quote: "We are a nation of laws, not of men." Poverty breeds necessity, and desperation breeds crime. All become its victims.

Dean sandageformer executive director,Butler county community action agencyddsandage@earthlink.net

Editor's note:

The Miami Student recognizes the factual errors present in the Sept. 5 article headline, "Butler Co. poverty rises 3.7 percent." According to statistical data, the headline should correctly read, "Butler Co. poverty rises by 40 percent." We regret these errors.