Hey tweets, yesterday I bought an annual pass for parking at the CUH.
It will cost me less than $1 a day to park at my favorite place on
earth - a real bargain.

I also spoke with the CUH people about this issue, and I learned
something very interesting. The CUH must pay rent (an internal but
very real cost) to the UW parking dept. for the spaces at the CUH.
This charge runs to some $3,000 a month! If the CUH cannot keep paying
this amount (and it looks doubtful that they can, given the dire state
of legislative support for higher ed), then what might happen is the
parking dept. could take over the parking fees themselves.

If they do that, the fees are bound to go up significantly, not to
mention the hassle factor. This has already happened at the laughably
retro name for the parking dept.'s E-5 lot: the Dime Lot. Years ago, a
dime is what it cost to park there, on the theory that students needed
a price break and this lot is a goodly distance from main campus so
prices should be low. Although we all know that prices have gone up
since the 1950s, I will note that at the current all-day parking fee
of $15, the Dime Lot cost increased by 15,000 percent.

As the CUH struggles to stay afloat in this economy, the staff are
doing all they can to keep the Fill as inviting and open as possible.
The parking fee, while a change from the past, is their good-faith
effort to ask all of us to contribute a little bit to keep this jewel
of a birding spot shining as brightly as it has for decades.

In light of this commitment, the CUH is offering good deals on the
parking fees:
Daily rate of $2.50 (vs. UW Parking Dept.'s fee of $15)
10 days or less: $19 (less than $2 a day)
Monthly rate: $28 (less than $1 a day)

They also note that parking is free on Saturdays after noon, all day
Sunday, every holiday, and whenever the CUH main building is closed.

So I ask you to be generous in this needful time, as generous as you
can afford to be and as I know you are.

On a less monetary note, the Western Meadowlark who has made the Fill
his winter home was in the tallest cottonwood of the South Blue Forest
yesterday, singing along with his cousins, the Red-winged Blackbirds.
Talk about fusion music: we were treated to a concert of bagpipes and
flute, with the occasional piccolo of starlings. It was like being at
a performance of the Scottish HIghland Games held at Benaroya Hall as
the drum and bugle corps marches in the aisles. My ears are still
ringing.- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com


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