Commons at Pembroke is located in a small town called Pembroke and is one of six off campus student-housing apartment complexes. Without the college, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, there would be nothing but houses and a Huddle House in this town. Having that said, it's not hard to understand why the police harass people and why towing companies make money off of the "from-out-of-town" college students.
When I signed my lease for Commons, two weeks before classes started, there was nothing about a parking policy within the written lease. One week after classes started, community manager Carla Smith signed a contract with Dream Finder Tow company to tow away any unauthorized vehicles from the Commons parking lot. All residents then recieved a letter stating that we must register our vehicle to recieve a sticker that will distinguish authorized cars from the unauthorized.
No one recieved any type of "change in lease" agreements to sign. Residents were simply forced to abide by rules enfoced by a non-resident, community manager, Carla Smith.
Within the same week, I witnessed maintenance supervisor Mike McCoy putting up a sign that states "Permit Parking Only: DreamFinder Auto and Towing 910-522-9690 unauthorized vehicles towed away." This created furious residents, especially when we realized that we weren't allowed any visitor's parking passes due to the limited number of parking spaces within the complex. Carla then told residents to have visitors park in the grassy lot by the train tracks, right across the street from Commons. She assured residents that our visitors' cars would be safe from towing.
There was an incident with Robenson Co officer Kelly Jenkins that I previously wrote about, where he called other towing companies to tow away cars that were in the grass lot, (I apoligize for my lack of info and mispelled words in that report; it was extremely early and I hadn't slept). Well after that incident, we realized that our "safe zone" for our visitors was no longer a safe zone. However our visitors still park there because there is literally no where else for them to park.
Ever since that 5am towing incident, they havent towed cars from the grass lot because there hasn't been a large number of cars parked there, like there was on that night/morning.
As time goes by, I despise the tow service more and more. It is very unfair how there is a policy enforced by nonresidents against the residents' will. To have four students to one apartment (off campus) paying 395.00 per month [for each individual room] it's only reasonable for us to have control over visitor parking, and what cars get towed. Shouldn't we have the power to call the tow company if we needed to? This is college student housing, not a high school boot camp!
Therefore, on March 30 I spotted the tow truck looking for treasure in the parking lot. And so I tried to save some residents' visitors cars that were parked in the complex by driving around, honking my car horn as much as I could. Oddly, I was successful and a few people came outside and hopped in there car and drove it to the grass lot. Of corse they should have parked there in the first place, but if the grass lot is no longer a "safe zone" then what's the use in parking there just to walk further to try and save it.
Feeling good about my act of heroism against the unfair towing policy that only inconvenience's us college students, Dream Finder left the complex with no treasure. However, I woke up to find him towing the less than 10 cars that were in the grass lot. I couldn't save any one then, only because I had class (a friend texted me what was going on).
As reported in my last story, there is still no "no parking or tresspassing" sign within 100 ft of the rail road tracks. And this time, I didn't even bother to investigate just to hear the cops lie to me and say that CSX called them and told them to have the cars removed. This is what was told to me last time, and I called CSX and they said they did not contact a Robeson Co Police Department.
This infuriates me. This can't go on forever. My lease ends July 31 but I still feel for the people that are still going to live here within this injustice.
I believe this policy was created due to the lack of parking spaces in the beginning of the semester when student residents were reuniting with friends from other towns. Once the semester started taking off, parking was not a material issue. However, many students don't even have cars due to the close proximity of the college campus.
The only thing that has changed about the policy, due to the number of complaints from the residents, is the fact that we are allowed visitor parking within the Commons parking lot from 8am to 9pm. Hopefully, justice will prevail and some superior individual will become aware of this crooked system and put a stop to it.
0 comments