“I park at Chinese Cultural Plaza,” HPU student, Mariah Schiaretti said. ”I get to park there six hours for $4. Then I have to go and move the car because I have a night class. For that I look for a street parking around Kukui Plaza, and if I can’t find it I go to Kukui Plaza which ends up being $3.”
Schiaretti is just one of many students who have to deal with limited downtown parking. Many students drive around for a long time trying to find a good deal, wasting gas and, often, time. Others have chosen to buy mopeds. Another option is to pay to park at Hawai‘i Loa Campus and take a free shuttle to town. By the way, parking there went up this semester to $5.50 a day, or $215 for one semester decal.
So, what do students from North Shore or the Ewa sides do? They can’t ride a moped because it is illegal to ride it on a highway, and the bus ride takes too long. Is someone from HPU trying to get any special offers for these students?
“The University does not have any plans to acquire any parking structures or to subsidize parking fees,” said Rick Stepien, Vice President for Administration Division. “To do so would require a recoupment of these costs, and we are very conscious of the impact of raising tuition for our students,” he added.
And we students do not want the tuition to go up, again.
Rick Murray, Associate Director, Security and Safety said that in his eight years at HPU, this is the first time that anyone has ever asked him about vehicle parking downtown.
“Generally, the “squeaky wheel gets the oil,” Murray added. “The University needs the feedback from the students. If the administration knows that the students have a problem with something, then they are going to look into it.”
So maybe students have not been loud enough? One more problem is that many students would like to park as close as possible to downtown where parking is very limited and pricey. There are numbers of parking garages that might be a little cheaper but the walk to campus would take 15-20 minutes. John Gono, Kukui Plaza parking manager, said that his company runs a parking lot on the corner of Beretania and Aala streets where parking costs $5 all day.
Most garages downtown said that they would not be able to offer any special discount for HPU students even if someone asked them officially. Space is limited and demand is high.
“Downtown parking is so limited that garages wouldn’t lower the price if they are sold out all day, every day,” Murray added.
One garage said they would consider a special HPU discount. Ronald Distilli, Mark’s garage manager, said that no one has ever approached them regarding a discount, but if asked in formal proposal they would consider it. “HPU would have to guarantee some number of people for us,” Distilli said. Maybe other garages would do the same.
Right now, here are some of the places and prices. According to many HPU students, the Chinese Cultural Plaza is the cheapest garage. $4 all day up to six hours with validation draws the greatest number of students. The validation could be a candy bar that costs $.60.
Kukui Plaza is the one you should avoid during the day, because it does not have a flat rate, but after 5 p.m. it would be $3 maximum. Mark’s garage is $10 all day and $5 after 3 p.m.
So students, let us hear your experiences. And HPU, who’s going to put a proposal together? Remember what Rick Murray said:”When things are brought to our attention, the answer is never that the money is more important. The students are our only resource. Obviously, we want our students to be happy.”
Here is some info on downtown parking:
http://www.hawaiitesol.org/ParkingatHPU.pdf
http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/economic/databook/2008-individual/14/141408.pdf
