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City winter parking rules sneak up on neighborhood
As if two-hour and four-hour zones and year-long overnight parking restrictions on some streets and avenues aren't already confusing enough, students now have to negotiate winter overnight parking rules on city streets.Last week, students who parked overnight on some streets found yellow notices on their cars in the morning. The notices said, "This vehicle is illegally parked," and consequently explained the Nov. 1-April 1 parking rules.It is illegal to park on the even sides of streets on even days of the month 1-7 a.m., and odd sides of streets on odd days during the same time period. This "park on the odd side of the street on even days" can be confusing. Also, streets exempt from the ordinance were defined on the card in a complicated, legalized description.The question is, how were students supposed to know about the winter parking rules, particularly SCSU students spending their first semester here. How are they to know which streets are exempt?In its wisdom, the city of St. Cloud has not put up any street signs in the campus neighborhood that define to which streets the winter parking rules apply, and to which they do not. Even the restrictions themselves are not defined.To the city's credit, it did not tow any cars in the first few days, only distributed the notices. However, St. Cloud could do a better job educating people what the ordinance is, how to follow it and what consequences to expect if they do not follow it.Most students and people who park overnight on the streets around SCSU would probably be more than happy to comply with the regulations, if they knew and understood them.In contrast, SCSU does an excellent job of reminding students to move their cars from campus parking lots during the winter. Public Safety has coordinated with residence hall staff to make sure signs are posted in hall lobbies before the lots will be plowed.St. Cloud could learn from SCSU and make more of an effort to inform the public about winter parking regulations before they take effect.
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