I have a parking problem at Loyola.

No, I am not going to complain about the high cost of a parking permit or about how the university sells more permits than they have spaces for. I have accepted those as facts of life in a densely built campus.

No, my problem is with how the university manages the few spaces we do have.

Let me start with a little background. I drive a very small car -you could say it is a “mini” car. It really doesn’t take up that much space in a garage.

I also ride my bike. Twice a week, I trek six miles each way to stay fit and to make an environmental-economical-political statement.

With such tiny modes of transportation, you might guess I would be set for easy parking. Guess again.

Let’s start with the bike. Loyola needs a covered commuter-only bike rack.

I spent a lot of money on my bike to make sure I don’t get stranded on the Mississippi River levee during my commute, and I would like to leave my bike somewhere with a roof over it.

I keep my bike in my garage at home, and I would like to make sure it doesn’t rust out while I am teaching class.

Unfortunately, every time I ride up to the lone covered bike rack on campus – the one on the first floor of the West Road Garage – I have to move on.

You see, after Hurricane Katrina, the university needed a place to store its diesel fuel for the many backup generators on campus – an admirable use of space, to be sure.

But that meant the covered bike racks had to go.

One rack disappeared, and the other got pushed into a tiny corner, reducing the space by half.

At the same time, those reduced parking spaces are always taken. As best as I can tell, a bunch of freshmen brought their bikes from Ohio thinking they would go for leisurely rides on the weekend, only to forsake two-wheeled transportation for the glories of a streetcar.

And while I can’t really blame them – who wants to ride a bike home from Madigan’s?

I do get annoyed when the same fleet of abandoned bikes takes all the prime real estate.

So, for my first proposal, let me suggest this: Give residents a dedicated covered bike rack somewhere on an upper level of one of the parking garages, and leave one covered rack for commuter-use only. If someone leaves a bike overnight at one of the commuter racks, University Police should cut the lock and seize the bike.

This would leave us bike commuters with somewhere to leave our rides.

And while we are at it, a security camera pointed at the bike racks would also be nice.

I have already had one bike stolen from one of the remote racks I was forced to use.

Now, lets talk about my problem with the automobile parking situation.

When I am driving my undersized car into either of our garages, I regularly go berserk. That is because nearly every day some oversized behemoth of a vehicle is jammed into a space clearly marked as “compact.”

I’m looking at you, Hummer.

Part of my contempt is for the drivers – you know better than to try and fit your oversized load into that space. But my main contempt is reserved for University Police.

Why mark a space as compact-only when you have no intention of actually enforcing it? Even if the Range Rovers manage to squeeze into those ridiculously small spaces -and they typically don’t – the owners are sure to dent the doors of all the compacts around them as the owners shimmy and squeeze in and out.

I don’t think a little parking courtesy is too much to ask.

Michael Giusti is the Maroon adviser, and is an instructor in the School of Mass Communication