Why I Refuse to Pay My Parking Ticket

The parking situation on campus has commuters furious. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer The parking situation on campus has commuters furious. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
The parking situation on campus has commuters furious. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
The parking situation on campus has commuters furious.
Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer

Kathleen Kraemer
Editor-in-Chief

Hello, my name is Katie and I got my very first parking ticket on Monday.

It is a $15 ticket and I do not intend to pay it.

I parked in a yellow striped spot in the parking lot behind Laurel Residence Hall. The spot next to the dumpster. A spot out of the way, that doesn’t really bother anyone.

Except for the parking patrol. They care a lot.

I am a senior commuter student, meaning I drive to school every day.

I pay $55 per semester in order to be permitted to park on campus.

I am totally okay with paying this small fee in order to park, because I understand that the money is used for important things like lot maintenance and snow cleanup.

What I am not okay with is the lack of available parking spaces on campus.

Most days when I arrive at the school for my 11 a.m. class or 10 a.m. meetings I am unable to find a spot that I am permitted to park in.

Not down campus in the pit, not further up at the library or at Fine Arts. Not a single spot.

I pay to park on campus, and if there is no parking I am forced to park off campus, park illegally, or park at a meter.

I am not going to park off campus, because I paid to park on campus and that is ridiculous.

The meters on campus are run by East Stroudsburg’s Borough and charge $1 per hour, so on days that I have 4 hours of class I end up spending $4 to park.

If I have to park at a meter every day I have those classes, it adds up to $180 for the semester.

I pay $55 to park on campus and if I am forced to pay an additional $180 to park at a meter because there are no other legal parking options on campus, what sense does that make?

I am a poor college student. I cannot afford that.

So, I resolved to take a chance and park in a spot that is not technically a spot.

I understand that its illegal, and I understand why I got the ticket, but the issue is that I would not have parked illegally if there were an available legal spot for me to park in.

I am not the kind of person who will park illegally to avoid walking down campus from Fine Arts.

I’m the kind of person who will park illegally because I paid $55 for a permit to park on campus and there are no legal parking spots available on campus.

So, with all this in mind, it is any wonder that I have no plan to pay this $15 parking ticket?

Email Kathleen at:
kkraemer2@live.esu.edu