The University is planning a parking garage for the corner of Atwater Street and Fess Avenue. In an ideal world, everyone would be able to walk to class and nobody would need to worry about parking. We don't live in that ideal world, though, and it's good to see the University accounting for that.\nNow, we realize that this parking garage is probably going to mainly benefit faculty and graduate students. We are fine with that, though. If IU intends to become a more research-oriented university, it needs to plan for such growth now. Taking proactive steps such as the construction of this garage is a positive sign that the University is planning for tomorrow. \nMany faculty and graduate students live outside the downtown area. Space needs to be made for them to travel here, and many of us know how difficult it can be to find a place to park your car. Anything to help alleviate that can only be a good thing. Furthermore, it's wise to build a garage now before it is needed and when we can pay for it, rather than later, after it's already needed and when we might not have the money for it.\nOn a different note, Fess Avenue is a popular crossing point for many students who live between campus and Bryan Park. Crossing that street is sort of like playing human Frogger and can take awhile during peak driving periods. Putting a parking garage there is probably going to mean putting a stoplight and a crosswalk there as well. This can and will be of immense benefit to the students who live there, as walking to class will become somewhat less perilous. Nothing can ruin a day quite like getting run over by a car.
DISSENT\nIn the 1970s, Joni Mitchell wrote a song titled "Big Yellow Taxi," in which she protested environment depletion. She ends every verse with "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."\nWhile Bloomington might not be "paradise," it would be detrimental to the well-known beauty of IU's campus to build a parking garage at the corner of South Fess Avenue and East Atwater Street. In fact, IU's beauty is so well-known that it is often listed in top 10 lists as one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation. So why would the IU trustees, who are so proud of IU's beauty, want to impede Bloomington's famous foliage to build a parking garage?\nSure, providing more parking might be useful for staff and faculty, but those groups seem to manage fine now. Even IU law professor Robert Fischman opposed the erection of a garage, saying "The University hurts itself because that area is important in helping to recruit and retain faculty … (IU) can offer quality of life advantages, such as an adjacent attractive neighborhood for raising a family, that other schools do not have" ("Trustees approve parking garage location," Indiana Daily Student, Monday).\nInstead of paving paradise, IU should focus on preserving its natural beauty.
