Santa Clara University's under utilize (and most likely over priced) parking structure. (End Rant)

I live off campus, about 15 miles or so. This means that every day I drive to school, sometimes multiple times. And it is almost impossible to find parking near the campus, which used to be understandable, but not any more.

Why?

As part of the ongoing renovation of the campus, a new parking lot was built. It would stand to reason that the students over time would pay for the privilege or the right to park across the street from Campus.

However this is not the case. Everyday I walk past the parking structure there tons of spots inside, with hundreds of open spots. Today as I walking I told a quick picture with my cell and saw approximately 302 open spaces.

A person would think that with the increase of parking the streets would be clearer, with most of the students taking advantage of the new space. But they aren't. It seems that once again SCU has created something that does not help the students (the previous one is the
Patricia A. and Stephen C. Schott Admission & Enrollment Services Building) but instead costs so much that its cheaper to just park in the neighborhood. And with the upcoming vote to limit the number of tenants within the neighborhood, this could have eased the tensions by creating places for off campus students to store their cars, and create a less crowded environment But instead SCU charges almost three times what other local colleges charge (average of $100/yr vs. $325/yr or $200/yr- reduced fee), and while everything about SCU is more expensive, there is nothing to balance it out like there is at SStanford Stanford, while having a interesting approach to parking, actually pays you to not purchase an annual pass instead purchase individual scratchers or permits and earn up $300 a year. 

So obviously SCU has an unused parking structure, as the picture attests to (the 47 is the last number a little hard to read). What do they plan to do with it is my question, I would love not fight with other students and neighbors to find parking. But as long as the prices remain so high, its cheaper to walk and annoy a nearby resident than it is to use something built for the students. Go Broncos!