The most discriminated against group on campus are drivers. The fault lies not completely with the University. It lies at least in part with the city of Burlington, especially Progressive-controlled Ward One. It’s almost comical to watch hapless students cruise Loomis, College, South Williams and South Prospect Street looking for a spot that doesn’t attract the attention of the watchful parking SS that so eagerly hunt offending cars to ticket and hook to a Spillane’s tow-truck. One student, after parking on University Heights, wound up actually getting in a foot race with a Spillane’s tow-truck driver to get to her car. As the driver raced from the cab of his truck, the poor student ran from the driveway of the house at which she was parked. The driver won by a fraction of a second. Out of breath, the driver panted, “I’m towing this car.” It took a police officer from the oft-maligned UVM Police to send the overzealous tow-truckerpacking. Mansfield Avenue is a street that has houses with large driveways on one side and a couple of schools on the other. A week before the election, brand new ‘Residents Parking Only’ signs went up on the street all the way to Colchester Ave., declaring the area in front of the Red Cross, Planned Parenthood and a University building, ‘Residents Parking Only.’ Every car parked on the street Wednesday had orange envelopes with fifteen-dollar parking tickets on their windshields. How does a Ward get this kind of service at the same time that it’s in danger of losing its Progressive monopoly on city council to Democrat Ian Carleton or Republican Nathan Rice? Most of the houses that now have ‘Residents Parking Only’ signs in front of them also have “Erika Nestor Progressive for City Council” on their lawns as well. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened. The parking on South Willard was halved this year, and the parking on North Prospect and the top half of Brooks Ave. is for residents only. Park in the UVM visitors’ lot, and on top of the money you pay to park there comes an additional thirty-dollar ticket for parking in a restricted zone. Park near a dorm and they’ll hit you up for $50.00, even if you’re just visiting or G-d forbid, moving in or out. Town Meeting Day is next Tuesday. Both Carleton and Rice have made student parking an issue that they will address. We can reinstall a party that has done NOTHING for the students, NOTHING for the community (except for perhaps the coming Methadone Clinic) and an overpriced downtown grocery store. As for the off-campus students – one nice Progressive came to my door talking about the benefits of Rent Control. If you want to see the current housing shortage get worse, vote Progressive. If you want to see the parking shortage get worse, vote Progressive. If you think balance is a good thing, let’s put Rice or Carleton in there and see what he can do.