Campaign Story
I’m a West Chester University student, and I live in an apartment in West Chester. I’ve received multiple tickets, and was towed once, all in 2019 alone. I’ve found that my fellow students, and most people in general that I’ve talked to who live in West Chester, have experienced something similar. Tickets are part of life in “WC”.
I proposed this story because I want to know how much revenue the borough collects in a year related to parking — and more importantly (to me and my classmates) how much of the total comes from the student body. It would be great to have a heat map of where ticketing is the heaviest (most revenue-producing). The data will be interesting!
I hope to answer those two questions, and in addition try to found out what the West Chester Borough, as well the the University, is doing to improve parking for everyone.
I’m a West Chester University student, and I live in an apartment in West Chester. I’ve received multiple tickets, and was towed once, all in 2019 alone. I’ve found that my fellow students, and most people in general that I’ve talked to who live in West Chester, have experienced something similar. Tickets are part of life in “WC”.
I proposed this story because I want to know how much revenue the borough collects in a year related to parking — and more importantly (to me and my classmates) how much of the total comes from the student body. It would be great to have a heat map of where ticketing is the heaviest (most revenue-producing). The data will be interesting!
I hope to answer those two questions, and in addition try to found out what the West Chester Borough, as well the the University, is doing to improve parking for everyone.
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12/17/19
And we're off!
Please back this campaign :-)
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12/20/19
We've reached 30% funding!
From 7 local backers we've already reached 30% funding, $150 out of our $500 dollar goal, with over forty days left to go!
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1/2/20
We've found a great new resource!
I watched the following video by CBC News entitled: "The worst place to park in Canada: Parking ticket traps, unfair tickets" and found it very informative in helping me learn how to think about parking as an issue to be reported on. I hope to use what I've learned from their report to build something similarly expansive, well rounded, and able to force change to occur to better our town's parking situation.
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1/23/20
We're generating a discussion that's for sure
Look at this meme! "I don't always dine in West Chester, but when I do I get a parking ticket."
We weighed in and shared our link — that prompted Donald Braceland, a member of the West Chester Parking Committee to post a comment:
If you have ideas to improve parking in the borough, please pass them onto me or the Parking Committee of Borough Council as we are always open to this. The borough is 1.8 sq miles and is built out. The demand for parking sometimes exceeds available parking spots. There has been discussion about adding a deck or two to Lot 10 where the Growers Market is. If you are getting tickets it's your responsibility to check the signs carefully and I admit, that can be a daunting task. I use the garages a lot and I've never not been able to find a spot. I never use the meters.
Chris Dima posted an article from CoverThis.News that asks how much the Borough raises from parking and how much comes from WCU. This can be found on the Borough webpage under Meeting Management, Document Center, Budget, Parking, p.22. Total Parking revenues for 2019 were $4,957,470. Here you can see the breakdown for violationns/tickets, etc. The Budget does not factor out revenues for students or WCU. There are no "hot spots" nor areas where enforcement is increased. Officers do not wait for a meter to expire so they can rush in and give you a ticket, besides, there is a five minute grace period.
WCU will be opening a 500? space parking garage in August and may be building another garage behind Sykes Student Union. WCU has been working on parking issues, but it's a work in progress. The Borough is not currently doing anything specific to address parking because the solution everyone wants is simply more parking... we just don't have the space to put it.
The CoverThis.News site is soliciting donations for this issue apparently. Why? -
1/28/20
Met with Editor-in-Chief of The Quad (Samantha Walsh)
I had a walk-in meeting with Samantha Walsh, Editor-in-Chief of West Chester University's student newspaper The Quad, about CoverThis.News specifically the parking story. We discussed a story about the campaign appearing in The Quad as well as collaboration between our two organizations on the story. Looking forward to working with everyone over at The Quad and seeing where this collaboration could take us!
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1/28/20
Met with head of Journalism MInor Department (Professor Ben Kuebrich)
I had a walk-in meeting with Professor Ben Kuebrich, head of West Chester University's Journalism Minor Program, we talked about CoverThis.News overall as well as the parking story and its relevance to everyone on campus. We also discussed CoverThis.News one day having an internship program for WCU Journalism students down the road. Very exciting developments!
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2/14/20
Got a email response from the Director of Parking Services, Clark Elms, saying we need to file a 'Right-To-Know Law' request form
I emailed West Chester Borough's Director of Parking Services, Clark Elms, requesting the data behind the top line number for ticket revenue in the 2019 calendar year I.E ticket date, time, address and/or approximate address, as well as the reason the ticket was issued in the first place for the purpose of making a "heat map" of West Chester Borough's parking ticket patterns. He responded with the following, "Please follow the link to our website and the right to know request that is required to be filled out and submitted to the Borough:
On this form are instructions on how to proceed towards having your request responded too. Let me know if you have any questions!" -
2/21/20
Met with Director of Parking Services, Clark Elms, and submitted our 'Right-To-Know Law' request form!
We researched Pennsylvania's 'Right-To-Know Law' and the request form process before filling out the form for our parking ticket data request. I then walked down to the West Chester Borough building, up to parking services, met with Clark Elms briefly, and then submitted the form to him personally. So excited to see what sort of data we get back!
| Name | Donate Amount | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Christopher Dima | $100.00 | February 29, 2020 |
| Joe Kass | $15.00 | January 24, 2020 |
| Kim Doan | $10.00 | January 08, 2020 |
| Kevin Paugh | $5.00 | January 04, 2020 |
| Renee Gomberg | $10.00 | December 20, 2019 |
| George Karmas | $10.00 | December 19, 2019 |
| Paul Gomberg | $10.00 | December 18, 2019 |
| Steve Gomberg | $50.00 | December 18, 2019 |
| Daniel Paugh | $10.00 | December 18, 2019 |
| Christopher Dima | $50.00 | December 17, 2019 |
| Austin Gomberg | $10.00 | December 17, 2019 |
