Parking, parking, parking. You hear it every semester, whether it?s fees being raised or the ever popular no-parking areas.

Picture this, you leave your house 45 minutes before your class starts just to get a parking space that doesn?t require 20 minutes of walking. You drive around the parking structure or a lot that says student parking and low and behold there is still no parking. The question of why did you buy a parking pass in the first place if you are not even guaranteed a parking space probably crosses your head a few dozen times. Yet you still drive around looking for some place to park your car without getting a ticket. Some day?s, anxiety and total disregard for parking procedure kicks in and you park illegally just hoping that the parking police will pass by and somehow miss your illegally parked vehicle. This is a common everyday occurrence for Sacramento State students, and although it is disliked, it is something that we as students have learned to deal with.

Now comes the part where we have to deal with what we have been handed and use our individual and moral principles when it comes to parking. Have you noticed that when you enter the parking garage there are a mass amount of cars just hovering like vultures waiting for a spot? This is something that has been pissing me off for the few semesters that I have had the privilege to go to this fine institution. There needs to be some sort of moral rules for parking, so that everyone can deal with the cards we have been dealt when it comes to parking.

Once, while driving in to the first floor parking garage, I circled the floor looking to park. In this quest for the Holy Grail I found another driver on the same quest. Fortunately for me, I found a student walking my way getting ready to leave. So I backed up turned around and turned on my blinker showing that this was my parking space. The other driver that I had encountered earlier had turned around and turned on her blinker after I had. We exchanged a glance and I pointed out that I was planning on taking my rightful place in this space. She looked back and continued to wait for the space. After the student pulled out of her spot that I had been waiting for, I pulled in turned off the car and proceeded on my way.

The other driver who continued to wait for my parking space complained that it was her spot that I had taken. “How is that when I saw the student first and was awaiting the parking space before you?” The driver replied that she had been waiting on the first floor for almost an hour waiting to park. I felt the drivers pain but on the principle of finders-keepers-losers-weepers I did not think I had to move. The drivers complaining persisted and in fear that the repercussions of not moving could be damaging to my car, I moved.

Has this happened to you? Has a parking space been rightfully yours and someone else stole it out right from underneath you? Or have you been the one to steal a parking spot and later wish you hadn?t because of the damage that was done to your car or yourself? The threat is out there.

Give Brian Mulholland a crash course on the parking situation. E-mail him at [email protected]