Author: Daniel Horowitz
Ten parking spaces on the west side of Bird Road have been recently designated as solely faculty and staff parking, according to Director of Communications Jim Tranquada.
“[The restriction] is chiefly related to the move of Swan Hall faculty into what are now known as the ‘South Swan’ temporary offices on the Wylie/Bell-Young parking lot,” Tranquada said.
The parking restriction is also “consistent with recommendation 5.3 of the 2006 Campus Safety and Security Assessment, ‘Designate more specific faculty/staff parking areas,'” Tranquada said.
“Additional ‘No Overnight Parking’ areas have been designated on Bird Road, and a campus-wide signage proposal is now under consideration,” he said.
The new parking restriction is unrelated to the institution’s goal of pedestrianizing the campus, according to Tranquada. This goal is expressed in the 2004 plan called the Five Big Ideas.
“Over the next 20 years through 2025, the center of the Occidental campus should be pedestrianized,” the plan states. “This can be accomplished by two principle means: Incrementally converting selected roads, parking lots and other hardscape areas into service roads and pedestrian use; and adding and/or improving existing leftover space into gardens, gathering places, pedestrian paths, and other means of facilitating social interaction…”
There also have been concerns that Occidental end free parking.
“The rumor that Occidental will start charging for parking regularly makes the rounds,” Tranquada said. “Most college campuses charge for parking … many parking experts recommend it. One of those experts, Dr. Martin Wachs made that recommendation to Occidental in a 1993 study of parking on campus. However, there is not currently a proposal to charge for campus parking.”
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