Graduate student Marina Lee has received at least 20 parking tickets since she first brought her car to Northwestern as a sophomore.
It might be the same this year for other off-campus students, who can expect even more difficulties parking after the Sherman Avenue Parking Garage closed in May. University and city officials urge students to leave their cars at home.
“It’s a tough problem when students from out of state bring cars,” said Jean Baucom, parking systems manager for the City of Evanston. “They need to be aware there’s going to be complications.”
City officials recommend off-campus students with cars park at Ryan Field and ride the shuttle to various places around and near campus.
Monthly parking permits for the city’s two garages — Maple Avenue Self Park at 1800 Maple Ave. and Church Street Self Park at 525 Church St. — are sold out with one-year waiting lists. The city is no longer accepting names for the waiting lists, Baucom said.
Off-campus students who live within the walking zone of the university — south of Central Street, east of Ridge Avenue and the Metra tracks, north Lake Street and west of Sheridan Road — do not qualify for a Northwestern University parking permit. Students living in the downtown area also do not qualify for City of Evanston residential parking permits, leaving students with few solutions for parking.
“That’s not right,” Lee said. “It shouldn’t be like that.”
Instead, Lee parks in the Church Street Self Park. She parked in the Sherman Garage last year before it closed, and her monthly permit automatically transferred to her current garage.
Lee, who lives on the 1600 block of Orrington Avenue, said she really wanted an NU parking permit, but she lives within the walking zone.
“I get very annoyed walking home late at night by myself,” she said. “I wish I could just park right here.”
Both Baucom and Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, recommended off-campus students park at Ryan Field and ride the shuttle to their apartments. But Baucom said the shuttle route doesn’t stop directly in front of individual apartment complexes, leaving safety a primary concern for students walking from the shuttle drop-off points to their homes late at night.
“Realistically, what that says is, ‘Students, you’re on your own for parking,'” Baucom said. “It leaves the city as being the only supplier for off-street parking. It makes the city the scapegoat.”
She said the construction of a new parking garage can help alleviate the dearth of space, but she understands why there aren’t more parking garages. Lack of space downtown combined with the high cost of building and operating a garage — it cost $25 million to construct the Maple Avenue Self Park — make building parking garages a low priority.
For Megan Rhyme, the lack of parking near her apartment in downtown Evanston solidified her decision to leave her car at home for her younger sisters.
“I figured I’d be walking and I wouldn’t have a place to park it in the first place,” said Rhyme, a Communication junior. “I know people with cars are always looking for parking.”
Reach Yuxing Zheng at [email protected].
