By Kate Bennett

Parking on the South Portland Campus is a joke. Honestly. I follow the advice given to students, especially those commuting like myself, to arrive an hour early and to check out different parking lots around campus. And yet, I’m infuriated when I’m forced to circle the parking lots for 30 minutes trying to find a parking space. Often, I find myself and observe other students racing each other to try to claim an open parking spot.

Another problem is that since parking is hard to find, students get really creative and make their own spots outside the parking-space lines. These cars often end up getting ticketed, but I see where some students are coming from when they make their own parking stops. Sometimes, life happens and students get there with just 15 minutes before class and  have to improvise after circling parking lots a couple of times because there aren’t enough parking spaces.

I spoke with another first-year student at SMCC, Cassie Marceau, who lives on campus and explained her experiences with parking here. “The parking situation here is beyond ridiculous. If you don’t get here an hour early, at least, then the chances of you being late to class are very high. There needs to be something done, and soon, about the parking. It’s screwing a lot of people over.”

This parking situation results in students getting angry and driving in a cramped parking lot. Both of these factors lead to cars getting hit and students getting angry. I experienced this firsthand when I went to leave after the first day of classes and my car had scratches and a large spot of dark paint on the side from when I assume another car ran into it. That was not a great thing to discover on my first day here.

Cassie Marceau also explained another incident that happened to her in a SMCC parking lot: “My car was parked in the middle of the Spring Point parking lot. The weekend of the first week of school, the driver’s side window got smashed at some point during the night. The annoying part was that it was the first week I was here, and the first year that I was here. What a great impression I got of the school that first week.”

It is important that something is done about this. I can’t even imagine the impact on parking if the number of students were to grow.

I have a few ideas that could potentially help the parking problem. One, which I have heard spoken about from various students, is building a parking garage where the parking lot is off of Broadway. While building a parking garage can be expensive, I think it would be well worth it to the school and students. Even if it was just a few levels, it would make a huge difference and show that the students are being heard. It would give students fewer reasons to get angry when parking, and decrease the worry about cars getting hit.

Another idea that I’m curious about is the field or park next to Broadway and across from our parking lot that is off of Broadway. I’m wondering who owns that land, and if it could be sold or leased to the school to turn into more parking.

If we all think about parking options, I know we can come up with a solution.