Question about UH parking (Houston: crime, home, construction)

[jek74]

I heard that parking at UH is awful. Many say you need to arrive very early. But what about if you are taking night classes? At what time of day does parking begin to improve?

[bloodwings19]

Originally Posted by jek74

I heard that parking at UH is awful. Many say you need to arrive very early. But what about if you are taking night classes? At what time of day does parking begin to improve?

People just afraid to walk, if you have no problems walking, you can find parking spaces anywhere. Night classes after rush hour, you will be fine, almost half of the school commutes to school. If you have to take daylight classes, the paid parking garage is your best bet if you are in a rush and I recommend that if you have a nice ride. When I did morning classes, I left for school at 6am and parked almost anywhere. I used my free hours to study, or catch up on sleep to wait for classes because morning parking is no joke. As semester got along, parking will be better, but the first month of the semester, it is an adventure from what I've been told by past and present schoolers. This was years ago, but I believe commuting school always has this problem in a big city.

[houston-nomad]

Spots probably free up after the afternoon classes let out (after 4, maybe).

The university has to do something about people getting mugged in the parking lots. I am a pretty tough urban gal and I definitely do not feel safe going to my car after dark.

[newton22]

Yup, the lots start emptying after 4-5 PM.

I don't like the Robertson stadium side of the campus and have never parked there in my 3.5 years at UH. I always parked over by the Bauer business school side and never had an issue even walking past 10 PM.

[jek74]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

Spots probably free up after the afternoon classes let out (after 4, maybe).

The university has to do something about people getting mugged in the parking lots. I am a pretty tough urban gal and I definitely do not feel safe going to my car after dark.

Really? Students are getting mugged in the parking lot? Is this coming from the projects next door or are students mugging students?

[newlymarried]

To answer your parking question, it's awful. (Or at least it was... I got my grad degree 2 years ago.) For day classes, I found that it was best to get there an hour before the first class started. When I got my choice of schedule, I rolled in about 8 (classes in my building started at 9), went to the (wonderful) gym, and then went to a 10:00 class. But even if I didn't have class until 2, I was there at 8.

Night classes after 5:30 or so made finding parking pretty easy around 4:30-5.

I felt safe on campus during the day. As for safety at night, exercise common sense.

Muggings happen on campus. Usually by people who aren't students. As I recall, it tended to be at night or in the very early hours. (I wouldn't want to be one of those dawn runners who live on campus at UH.)

I would also stay away from the McDonald's directly off campus -- there were usually 2-3 reports of muggings there per semester. But those were usually late at night.

Among my group of grad students, there were unstated expectations. When possible (like when leaving class), we stayed in a group. We would wait for any stragglers, people who needed to use the bathroom, etc.

Male students would offer to accompany a female student to her car (the correct etiquette was then for the female student to drive the male student to his car). Or sometimes female students would do something similar -- pile into one car and then drive others around to theirs. At a minimum, we used a buddy system and didn't let anyone get out of sight if our cars were in close proximity to each other. Nobody left the parking lot until you knew your buddy was safely in his/her car.

The university security will escort you to your car if asked, so that's always an option, but it never seemed practical.

As a female, I really tried not to be walking alone at night on campus. If I absolutely had to, I called my husband and gave him my location very loudly as I walked, then kept him on the phone until I was safely locked in my car. (As in, "HI, HONEY. I'M LEAVING BUILDING ____ AND GOING TO THE PARKING LOT LABELED 13A. I WILL BE HOME IN 15 MINUTES. I'M NOT MAKING ANY STOPS. THERE IS NO REASON I WON'T BE HOME IN 15 MINUTES.") Obviously, my husband knew that we were not supposed to be having a serious conversation, and basically the point was to let anyone listening know that someone knew where I was. (Although I noticed he always wrote down my location.) So I just talked like that until I reached my car -- and was intensely focused on whether I could see anyone else, where they were, etc. This was common practice, so I don't think I was being obnoxiously paranoid. But I was willing to be a little paranoid to stay safe.

[jek74]

Originally Posted by newlymarried

To answer your parking question, it's awful. (Or at least it was... I got my grad degree 2 years ago.) For day classes, I found that it was best to get there an hour before the first class started. When I got my choice of schedule, I rolled in about 8 (classes in my building started at 9), went to the (wonderful) gym, and then went to a 10:00 class. But even if I didn't have class until 2, I was there at 8.

Night classes after 5:30 or so made finding parking pretty easy around 4:30-5.

I felt safe on campus during the day. As for safety at night, exercise common sense.

Muggings happen on campus. Usually by people who aren't students. As I recall, it tended to be at night or in the very early hours. (I wouldn't want to be one of those dawn runners who live on campus at UH.)

I would also stay away from the McDonald's directly off campus -- there were usually 2-3 reports of muggings there per semester. But those were usually late at night.

Among my group of grad students, there were unstated expectations. When possible (like when leaving class), we stayed in a group. We would wait for any stragglers, people who needed to use the bathroom, etc.

Male students would offer to accompany a female student to her car (the correct etiquette was then for the female student to drive the male student to his car). Or sometimes female students would do something similar -- pile into one car and then drive others around to theirs. At a minimum, we used a buddy system and didn't let anyone get out of sight if our cars were in close proximity to each other. Nobody left the parking lot until you knew your buddy was safely in his/her car.

The university security will escort you to your car if asked, so that's always an option, but it never seemed practical.

As a female, I really tried not to be walking alone at night on campus. If I absolutely had to, I called my husband and gave him my location very loudly as I walked, then kept him on the phone until I was safely locked in my car. (As in, "HI, HONEY. I'M LEAVING BUILDING ____ AND GOING TO THE PARKING LOT LABELED 13A. I WILL BE HOME IN 15 MINUTES. I'M NOT MAKING ANY STOPS. THERE IS NO REASON I WON'T BE HOME IN 15 MINUTES.") Obviously, my husband knew that we were not supposed to be having a serious conversation, and basically the point was to let anyone listening know that someone knew where I was. (Although I noticed he always wrote down my location.) So I just talked like that until I reached my car -- and was intensely focused on whether I could see anyone else, where they were, etc. This was common practice, so I don't think I was being obnoxiously paranoid. But I was willing to be a little paranoid to stay safe.

Thanks for that detailed answer. I have to say, I'm impressed that guys are walking girls to their cars. I've been to a few other commuter schools and never witnessed that before. That's nice to see. I'm curious, how late do some of the night classes go?

I'm surprised UH has not built a larger vertical parking garage. Or is there one? I don't remember seeing one. If girls are so scared walking to their cars at night, I feel really bad for those who actually live on campus. That's one of the nice things about going to college in a typical college town where it's a small community and the entire town is centered around the campus. But having a university in the middle of a large and growing city like Houston has lots of benefits too.

[newlymarried]

I think you're moving from Chicago. I lived in the North and didn't see much "chivalry" there, but it's common here. Unstated expectations on everyone's part. When I moved, it took me about 6 months to learn I should stand back and let the man open the door... One guy I worked with ended up literally sprinting to every entrance before I figured it out. ;-) But yes, it's wonderful, especially when there is some concern about safety.

Hmmmm... as far as late classes, the latest I ever had was a 9:30 end time. I don't know if that's universal.

But despite my best efforts, I sometimes got stuck on campus later. One night it was about 1 am before I left. I was the TA for a class, it was close to finals, and the students needed help, so instead of ending at 9, we kept going. Of course, we traveled in a group when we left. I think I had two or three male escorts that night. ;-)

I think they're working on parking garages, but it's slow going. We were promised one the year I started school in 2007... I don't think it's finished yet. And honestly, the one I know was in progress just made stuff worse for current students -- they had to build it on top of a parking lot, so several hundred parking spaces went missing when they started construction. The beneficiaries are the students who haven't started yet.

Are you starting school in January?

[jek74]

Originally Posted by newlymarried

I think you're moving from Chicago. I lived in the North and didn't see much "chivalry" there, but it's common here. Unstated expectations on everyone's part. When I moved, it took me about 6 months to learn I should stand back and let the man open the door... One guy I worked with ended up literally sprinting to every entrance before I figured it out. ;-) But yes, it's wonderful, especially when there is some concern about safety.

Hmmmm... as far as late classes, the latest I ever had was a 9:30 end time. I don't know if that's universal.

But despite my best efforts, I sometimes got stuck on campus later. One night it was about 1 am before I left. I was the TA for a class, it was close to finals, and the students needed help, so instead of ending at 9, we kept going. Of course, we traveled in a group when we left. I think I had two or three male escorts that night. ;-)

I think they're working on parking garages, but it's slow going. We were promised one the year I started school in 2007... I don't think it's finished yet. And honestly, the one I know was in progress just made stuff worse for current students -- they had to build it on top of a parking lot, so several hundred parking spaces went missing when they started construction. The beneficiaries are the students who haven't started yet.

Are you starting school in January?

Yup, starting school in Jan. Ironically, one of the reasons why you don't see chivalry in the north, at least here in Chicago, is that a lot of women here have this "I'm independent, leave me alone" type attitude. I hold a door open for a woman and don't even get a look sometimes. It's just different up here.

Do you have any pointers on the ART conference? That's the one day event you have to attend to register for classes and tour the campus.

[Topaz]

The staff know never to walk to their cars alone, so that should tell you something about crime at UH. A lot of students think UH is safe during the day but much of the crime happens in broad daylight in the afternoon. When I worked there, I missed several of these incidents by 5-10 minutes.

Honestly, I don't understand the lack of security. You'd think UH would do whatever it takes to fix this.