Mayor, students discuss parking problems in Bloomington

Hands waving back and forth to animate his regret for his tardiness, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan began the "Meet the Mayor" discussion by explaining that he gets later to events every day, and that is why he was 20 minutes late last night. \nAt 4:00 p.m. Thursday night in the Indiana Memorial Union's Walnut Room, Kruzan met with students to discuss his visions for the city of Bloomington. This event was sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Organization in order to allow students to ask questions and learn more about the Bloomington community.\n"The purpose of 'Meet the Mayor' was for students to get a sense of the community they are living in and to let them know that there is something outside of the University," said Erika Biga, director of public relations for GPSO. \nBloomington is continually facing changes and challenges. Although Kruzan may not have a set-in-stone plan for his future, he readily discussed many of the major issues IU students face, such as the ongoing and controversial issue of parking. \nBecause events like this are geared toward all IU students, and not just graduate students, Biga said she is constantly trying to provide links for students to the community. \nRichard Kaler, a senior studying philosophy and political science, said he attended the event as a requirement for his American Political Thought course.\n"I'm pretty cynical," said Kaler. "I think politicians are motivated by their career interest."\nWhile the focus of the session was not directly on Kruzan, he discussed the ongoing issue of parking between IU students and the Bloomington community. \n"It is a love-hate relationship," Kruzan said. "At times, there is resentment towards students, but Bloomington would not be Bloomington without the students."\nKruzan continued to discuss the issues of parking with student tenants in the downtown Bloomington area.\nCurrently, there are 1,100 off-campus "beds" being built for student housing in downtown Bloomington. With this continual effort to provide more housing for the increasing student population at IU, Kruzan said many controversial issues continue to come up.\nKruzan said if an apartment complex has a 500-person occupancy, the complex is only required to have parking spots available for 50 percent of its tenants. And, though the 500-occupancy apartment building has 250 parking spots available, Kruzan said, those 250 parking spots are not necessarily all located on apartment grounds.\n"Even all those parking spots are not on sight. Many of them are in nearby parking garages," Kruzan said.\nHe said for every new "bed" built in downtown Bloomington, the streets in downtown become more like parking lots. The issue of parking within the new apartment complexes continues to grow and become a major concern for downtown merchants and members of the Bloomington community. \nKruzan said changes are in the works to solve these problems but it will cost money and make definite changes to how parking is currently handled.\nAs of now, parking enforcement ends at 5 p.m. Friday and resumes 8 a.m. Monday. Kruzan said this, along with many other policies, will change. \n"People are accustomed to driving to their destination and parking," Kruzan said. "They are not on the look-out for a parking garage."\nThe idea that many residents have to use facilities like parking garages inevitably turns many local residents away from the downtown area, Kruzan said.\nParking fines are also a huge issue students and residents face. Kruzan said they currently excuse high numbers of parking tickets but this policy will soon diminish, and the cost of tickets will increase considerably.\nKruzan said, as of now, there is no definite plan. In two weeks, he will meet with a downtown planner to begin thinking about what the downtown should look like and where people will be able to park. \n"Being patient is the best bet," Kruzan said. "I am pro-downtown revitalization, but I am concerned that we do not know what we have done with development up until now."\n-- Contact staff writer Kristin Huett at khuett@indiana.edu.