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Wednesday January 19th

Parking

Erin Day, a graduate student in UNC's chemistry department, stands in front of her car in a disabled parking lot near Caudill Labs on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. "It's such a complicated path," says Day of her struggle to obtain a disabled parking permit. "It feels like the university at large doesn't want you to get it."

Grad student's experience highlights parking accessibility challenges at UNC

By Clay Morris | Jan. 24

Over the summer, graduate student Erin Day faced multiple obstacles while applying for a disabled parking permit at UNC. 

  • After repeated requests in both 2018 and 2020, Day's path to accommodations on campus highlights the challenges in parking experienced by the University's disabled community.
  • To Austin Tyner, a chairperson of the Disability Advocates for Carolina committee within the Campus Y, Day’s experience is an unfortunate example of the barriers that UNC students with disabilities face.

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Scott Reece, 45, helps his wife, Nunny Reece, 41, who has stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, tie her shoes on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. Nunny Reece and her husband frequent UNC Hospital often and face additional challenges due to parking costs, which typically are up to $10 a day. On this day, Reece had a parking permit due to her receiving radiation treatment all week. 

'It broke us' : Parking fees strain cancer patients while building revenue for UNC

By Eva Ellenburg and Arabella Saunders | Oct. 2, 2019

Most long-term patients, such as those with cancer, pay the same amount for parking at UNC Hospitals as every other visitor throughout the state. Some are exasperated over the additional toll those parking fees add to their week-by-week treatment schedules.  While alternative options have been created for a few specific circumstances, many patients don’t qualify and have seen parking expenses pile up. Meanwhile, the University generated $3.7 million in revenue last year through its Dogwood Parking Deck, one of two primary parking areas for UNC Hospitals patients and visitors.

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Disgruntled with Chapel Hill parking? So are Franklin Street businesses

By Marin Wolf | Aug. 28, 2019

Since last July, eleven stores and restaurants in downtown Chapel Hill have closed their doors. Is lack of parking the culprit? Parking in downtown Chapel Hill is an issue that community members and business owners alike have felt. Shops on Franklin Street need parking for their employees, but also for patrons who cannot walk from one place to another. Some businesses even find that passersby go elsewhere where parking is more convenient, thereby driving away local business traffic.  A few newer solutions popped up, like Park on the Hill, which attempt to maximize parking availability. But dissatisfaction is still high.

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The Town of Chapel Hill's parking lots are transitioning to a pre-paid system.

Pucker up and pay up front: Chapel Hill is changing downtown parking payments

By Liza Zhytkova | May. 29, 2018

Goodbye time tickets, hello prepay: the Town of Chapel Hill's Lots to Love campaign is gearing up to try and transform parking downtown and your attitude toward it. “The switch is more than just moving from the old system to these new meters. It’s all one big initiative to create positive interactions with parking,” said Ran Northam, community safety communications specialist for the town. Lots of Love launched in late April, marking the switch in how you pay for parking and introducing the Park on the Hill Kissing Contest on Instagram.

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