The Triangle

Issue date: 5/23/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs Drexel Students Ryan Wheeler (left) and Patrick Montgomery (right) speak to PVCA President Tony Dominick, while residents vote on the new Powelton Village parking permit hours.

The Powelton Village Civic Association held a meeting May 19 to vote on the extended permit parking hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The results of the vote have not yet been released.

Drexel students and other Powelton Village residents packed the Community Education Center's Meetinghouse Theatre for their chance to vote and voice their opinions.

Students had their own opinions as to why the parking permit hours should be not changed.

"We feel like being a part of the community, and the fact that we contribute so much, it's only right that we should be able to park our cars," Ryan Wheller, a junior finance major, said.

Aside from being residents of Powelton Village, students are also part of the working community and struggle each day to find parking after work, according to Kyle Lauff, a sophomore biomedical engineering major.

Jason McGovern, a pre-junior communications major, added, "I think that it's a major inconvenience that will make it difficult for any college student to find parking."

Dominick spoke to the subject of working students in the community with cars.

"Parking is hard in the city. There's more people and not enough space of the cars," he said.

Powelton resident Jack Minmis agreed with Dominick.

"There's the people who can't find a place to park when they come home because all of the evening students park there instead of parking in the garage," Minmis said. "There just aren't enough places for all of the people."

Powelton resident and Drexel professor Ken Yanoviak said it may result in the residents versus the students, and offered a better solution to the permit hours change.

"The best solution is if Drexel would offer affordable parking," Yanoviak said.

He also suggested that, like other universities, Drexel should not allow freshman to have cars on campus and that Drexel should offer more affordable parking.

"Try to get Papadakis to lower rates for the students in the garages, because it's too expensive," Minmis said.

Rita LaRue, senior associate vice president for Business Services, wrote in an e-mail: "Drexel has been committed to providing as much capacity as possible, the most recent being the renovation of the Parking Garage and the addition of 285 space. … In a recent study, Drexel Parking Services found that our monthly permit rate of $113 per month compares very favorably against parking rates in the University City area, which average $175 per month."

The meeting also discussed that residents can "opt out" their block from the changes. Within 30 days of the changes to be made, residents can call the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and they will send out a questionnaire asking residents if they are for or against the change, according to Dominick.

According to meeting minutes in the Powelton Post, Deara Person of the PPA said it "does not enact restrictions on blocks unless the residents of that block request it … a minimum of 70 percent of the residents must agree."

Students were able to vote on this decision as long as they had a valid address, and only one student could vote per household, according to Dominick.

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs NCA President, Tony Dominick addressed Drexel students and Powelton residents May 19 at the Community Education Center located at 3500 Lancaster Avenue about the vote for the permit parking hours to change from 9 p.m. to 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

"At the end of the voting, the petitions were collected by Marty Cabry, the representative from the Third Councilmatic District on Philadelphia City Council, to be delivered to the PPA," Dominick wrote in an e-mail.

Ben Campbell, a junior finance major, said it was only fair that students' opinions be a part of the community's decision-making process.

"Students are the lifeblood of this community," he said.

Dominick said the PVCA meetings are the third Monday of every month and are open to anyone.

In the May 16 issue of The Triangle, some of the blocks were incorrectly labeled and are not affected by the proposed permit parking change. Lancaster Avenue is not affected, and on Baring Street, between 35th and 36th streets, the blocks are not affected.

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