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Alicia Petska
Published: August 20, 2008
Updated: September 9, 2008
Drivers hoping to park at the Plaza and make the short walk to E.C. Glass for the Obama event Wednesday evening were met by blocked entrances and Liberty University police officers directing them instead to City Stadium.
That’s where city officials had hastily arranged shuttle service after learning Wednesday morning that LU, which owns the Plaza, would not allow event parking at the shopping center.
A few hundred vehicles ended up using the stadium lot, where city school buses had made about 15 trips to E.C. Glass by 6:15 p.m.
Lee Beaumont, LU’s director of auxiliary services, said the university never received a request to use Plaza parking space.
“There was no conversation at all,” Beaumont said. “… Nobody bothered to talk to us about it.”
He added LU had multiple concerns about allowing the event parking, including the impact on tenants of the midtown shopping center and the school’s liability if an accident were to occur.
LU officials were also apprehensive about how the participation would affect the school’s status as a 501(c)(3) organization, a designation that prohibits partisanship.
The school has previously invited Obama to speak at its campus, and has played host to former presidential candidates, including Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.
“When you only have half a day or a day to react to something, you can’t make a good decision,” Beaumont said, adding the school based its decision on practical concerns.
“We’re not trying to make a political statement.”
JoAnn Martin, the city’s director of communication, said the city was not involved in designating the Plaza for parking.
“We were told by the local campaign there would be parking there, and that was also printed on their tickets,” she said. “I think they were operating under the assumption that was public property.”
Nancy Cloyd and Bruce Johnson drove from Buckingham County for the Obama event and headed straight for E.C. Glass, where officers near the school directed them to City Stadium.
“That was pretty good, actually, because we’re not familiar with Lynchburg,” Cloyd said. “He (the officer) gave us pretty good directions.”
Sonny Witt, Lynchburg City Schools’ director of facilities and transportation, said everything went smoothly, considering officials only had about four hours to put the impromptu system together.
Witt said some of the six buses on hand probably were unnecessary, as buses were usually only half full when they left the parking lot.
“We didn’t get the surge we thought,” he said.
Reader Reactions
Freedom I think you should go to LU and take an English and Spelling class. Also how would you like someone parking on your property without your permission? And as far as not shopping there goes you will only hurt the business owners not LU. If they go out of business LU will just rent the space to someone else.
PS: Spell check is standard on most computers!
I just wanted to say that I am a LU student, however the Falwells and LU have tons of issues. They definitely need to hire people who have all of their intelligence points who can figure out that they need more parking for church and students alike. We don’t need a tennis complex, a B&N;, soccer fields and other crap when we can’t even park to enjoy them. I see where LU came from in the parking lot issue, but I also see that they could have been there to monitor the situation instead of sending people away. They could have made a good name for themselves instead of worsening the one they have. Someone needs to make sure LU gets on the right track, it may be a good school, it may be christian…falwell always said if it’s christian it should be better, right now it looks like junk. There’s no where to park, students do whatever they want and don’t know how to drive. Not to mention that LU and it’s administration would rather build an LU and a ski slope when it can’t even keep the parking under control or have their website running perfectly.
Very entertaing watching you throw rocks at each other. Why is Liberty hated so much? I do not attend school or church at Liberty and I am not defending them. I think the school poupulation breaks down much like our own. They have idiots that will claim to know all and force feed their version of the good book on you. They also have students that are genuine and are pleasure to be around. The majority are not “HardCore” and are openminded to people and issues in the world.In any school you are taught to obey the rules and respect the teachers and leaders of the establishment. They are doing just that. I don’t think the students really cared about the golden cow painted on the mountain. I think most are probably embarrassed at the whole Obama E.C. Glass deal. Was Obamas camp at fault for not getting the lot approved? Yes they were.And yes it looks like something could have been done by the Fallwell camp to make it happen as well.And both sides claim to be Christions? Reading your posts you both sound more Sunni or Shite to me. Oh and yes I call myself a Christion to. I am gonna sum up by saying we need to get along,the school does bring money and jobs into the area but the Liberty Leaders need to do as good a job of promoting goodwill outside of the church as they do in it.
,,14nynets!!ahh what part of my posting did,nt you read and understand!!25,000 kids means more drain on city services,,like cops/emt/road work /expansions/afterall most of liberty cars are outer staters therefore pay no dmv taxes,/cost to courts/for handling court cases,,judges aint cheap/lock up cost//pissing off the fags and having them desend on this city thus more cost to city in troopers/cops etc..more destruction of land/wetlands/mountain sides/and then gettin your little elected boy to rename hwy and get state funds for tunnels //cost of more signs/street lghts/higher insurance rates //and on and on it goes and after 30 some years u still cant get national reconition as an outstanding academic insitution!!glad you moved how about takin some more w/u ,,and do some math ever since liberty expands our taxes increase more so than other cities our size/why/YOU PAY NO TAXES!!so wherez my 50 million in tax money !!you aint anything but a bunch of socialistic free loaders!! 
Barbara Dubose: “What an exciting day for Lynchburgers to remember in welcoming Obama to our small town. He put Lynchburg on the map!“
Are you kidding me??? Obama put Lynchburg on the map?? That’s hilarious!
I grew up in Lynchburg, but moved away over 3 years ago. I now live in a metropolitan area with a population of over 500,000. Whenever I say I’m from Lynchburg, the first thing people ask me about is Jerry Falwell. Funny, no one’s ever asked me about Obama.
All of you LU Haters crack me up. Someone on this forum said that they were ashamed of LU and the Falwells. It would serve all of you haters right if they just up and moved their university, taking all 24,000+ students and faculty with them. What a huge economic impact that would have on your city! You’d all be singing a different tune then, wouldn’t you? Some of you people need to think!!!
REALITY CHECK,,hey LIBERTY dosent pay taxes!!,,it collects the taxes from the business that sub-lease at the plasa and turn its over to the city in the name of liberty,,so get-err-right !!,,darn ,,dont they teach you anything there besides VOTE REPUBLICAN!!thats why i,m against any corp tax,,cause all they do is pass it on to us the buyers,,thats why we the poor/miiddleclass pay 23 %in taxes to corp am.1-3 % in taxes and LIBERTY 0% in taxes but use taxpayers money to have our police/ambulance/911/snow removal/trash p/u/etc etc ..etc etc to sap suck us into building ramps//bridges //tunnels//etc etc .....and if not at our expence,,heck get the STATE to do so !! but then liberty gets federal tax dollars from us calll church something,,and they use that to force us to go to their church if we want a food basket !!while they take that tax money and live in MEGA - HOUSES,after they take the best food for themselves and leave me with spam,,while WWJD//born in a barn and was buried in a cave,,after he died on a cross for fighting against an oppressive roman taxing ruler ??wwjd with this churh today ,,come back in a cloud and blow some trumpet .....consitution says churh and state separate,,ahh to stop the pope from taking over the world ..and stop jerry from taking this nation…......
Obama’s staff probably assumed that Lynchburg would be just like every other community he has spoken at where available parking near the venue would be readily available without having to jump through hoops or pay ‘fair market value’ of $5-10 per space. Exactly when was the last time anyone paid ‘fair market value’ to park at the Plaza anyway? Christians should practice what is written in the New Testament (‘Do unto others’) instead of being so concerned with politics.
,,hey DMILTCHFORD,,are you the one we saw on the news who was being punished for supporting OBAMA,,if not watch your back !! u must vote as liberty says or you r a trator !!falwellian inquisition is in effect,,you have no free will you have no free mind and no soul,,its do as lu says,,and as far as the gym of glass being a dump,,let me remind you that its us taxpayers who built your invain center,,cause you pay no taxes,, so punk whereis my 50 mil..and Obama cant have large crowds,,remember the states united KILL all its saviors,,kenndys,mlk,,its in the best interest of this nation that OBAMA lives,,if he is killed ,,then you will see an uprising of this nations people like never before,,WATTS will be a joke !!
All you Obama lovers should quit crying. I’m an LU student who plans on voting for Obama, but he should have called ahead to reserve the lot. Or better yet, he could’ve accepted LU’s invitation to speak at the Vines Center. Then way more people could’ve seen him speak and this parking mess wouldn’t have been an issue. Or he could’ve spoke at the city armory, or at Heritage’s gym, either of which seat more people than E.C. glasses crappy gym. Obama’s campaign should plan better in the future.
hey LOOK AND SEE!!,,i just got off the phone with the VATICAN,,i was talking to my ambassador rev.james Harvey of NYC,,station at the VATICAN on my behalf,,and this is what we have in store for LIBERTY UNIVERSITY,,you had CATHOLIC kennedy speak to you,,this catholic pushes amnesty for the pontifs invading army,,this army now stands at 25 million,,and it drops 10 kids per woman so at that rate in 30 years your HOLINESS will have a catholic popoulation of an additional 130 million,,warriors,,with that you baptist will be forced to bow down to his holiness,,he will overrun your campus,,he will BUY it w/gold and banquish you and he will rename it THE RED DEVILS OF DUKE ANNEX !!and the only angel you will see is the one that BLOWS out that 500 million tons of carbon that you have burning on some wanna-be a KENNEDY syndrome thing you got going on ..,,speakin of worshiping a god ,,falwell,,and the other angel that comes will be the angel of REVELATION the one who puts his foot down and destroys you all!!SO please keep voting for the republicans like reagan who gave the first amenisty and bush who aint done a darn thing to stem this catholic invasion and who in his fare-well visit to the pope and in the popes private garden ask to convert to catholicism upon leaving office ,,as did TONY BLAIR,,as has his brother the x-gov of fla..LOOK SEE GOTCHA,,tu abala esponal ,,DUKE RULES
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