EWU’s curb appeal

While a hefty percentage of Eastern Washington University students and faculty take the bus or park in the paid lots near campus, a large portion of university-related traffic is parked on city streets.

On a typical class day vehicles are parked bumper-to-bumper along city streets for easily a quarter-mile around the university.

“Parking around the university or because of the university has been an issue in Cheney for a long, long time,” said Cheney police Commander Rick Campbell. More than 3,700 tickets were issued for parking violations on city streets last year. One of the months with the greatest number of violations October.

Cheney city officials have pitched multiple ideas to address the parking situation, including providing free parking passes to homeowners along the crowded streets, Campbell said.

EWU spokesman Dave Meany said people aren’t crowding the paid lots or the city streets more than normal. Meany said the university encourages people to ride the bus – 20 percent more people are riding STA into Cheney or around Cheney this year. The main Park and Ride downtown, where people in Spokane park their cars and take the bus into Cheney, is full.

Meany also said the university has considered converting a house near campus into about 40 more paid parking spaces.

But he noted the university doesn’t have any immediate plans for more parking, given the struggling economy.

“Considering the budget situation with the state, to go ask for money to build a parking garage or another parking area, I really don’t know if that’s a priority right now. Not that it’s not an issue,” Meany said.

Brenda Vanderwilde is a part-time faculty member who commutes into Cheney four times a week in her car. About once a week, she finds herself looking for parking more than a five-minute walk away from campus.

“It’s pretty hard. It’s not impossible,” she said. “Some days it’s a lot harder than others.”

Student Shauri Coleman lives by the Safeway in Cheney, but primarily chooses to drive to campus every day. Because she arrives earlier in the morning to work, she said parking is fairly easy to find. “I know if you get here later, it gets more difficult.” She said she can usually find a spot in the free parking lot by Cheney’s community pool close to campus.

Hilton Real Estate is one of Cheney’s largest rental companies. Jerry Hilton has more than 200 housing units (duplexes and apartment buildings) roughly half of which are near the university.

Hilton said he gets about a dozen calls a quarter from his residents who find university traffic parked in their private driveways or apartment lots. He gets more calls at the beginning of each quarter.

“It just seems silly to see these cars (parked) down on Second Street when there are vacant and half empty lots up on campus. Something ought to be done about that,” Hilton said, referring to the university’s open pay-for-parking lots, which he said are rather expensive.

Homeowner Chris Thompson lives about four blocks from EWU. On a Thursday morning in mid-November, cars were parked bumper to bumper on both sides of her driveway.

“I don’t need the parking spaces,” she said casually. “I’ve never had any issues,” she said.

Her only problem is what she calls a lack of law enforcement on the part of city and university police officerswhen people violate parking laws near her driveway.

“They used to write them (tickets) all the time,” she said. “Now I don’t see it anymore.”