From 3rd Avenue to handicapped spaces, students park wherever they can, often at the cost of a parking ticket. Many students who drive are unable to get reserved parking in our student parking lot. The lot has just over 100 spaces, ensuring parking for only a fraction of the senior class, let alone students who begin driving as early as sophomore year.
Because of the parking space shortage, students have no choice but to park illegally if they want to make class on time.
Though there are legal spaces to park, they are a 10-minute walk from campus, at least, often causing students to be late to first period. For many students, this is not feasible.
“I live in Arden and I have to drive to school but don’t have a parking pass,” says Maya Steinhart (‘19), a student that has no choice but to park illegally. Soon after this, Maya and a rash of students that park on 17th were ticketed.
Some students continue to park illegally, while others have sought alternative options.
“I didn’t have a parking pass in the beginning of the year, so I was parking over on 7th and 8th” says Dylan Anderson (‘19), “and then I got a ticket, so I parked in a new spot, and got another ticket.”
Anderson began parking in the student lot illegally after construction, in the spaces that were unassigned to students. When a student he knew with a parking pass left the school, he jumped at the opportunity to secure a parking spot. “I talked to Officer Graham and it took a two week process for me to even try to get a pass, but I got the pass, so now I just park there.”
Some juniors, like Kushraj Narayan (‘19), were able to earn parking spots through working in the McClatchy office over the summer, though there are some that park in the lot without a pass.
Senior Anna Murray (‘18) received a $450 ticket earlier this year for illegally parking in a handicapped space in the student parking lot, “It happened because juniors and seniors park in the parking lot without a pass, so they take up all the spots, and because I get there second period, there are never any spots left.”
Murray is currently contesting her ticked in court, on the grounds that she had a pass for the lot, her spot was taken, and she had to get to class.
She believes that campus monitors checking cars at random for parking passes as they enter the lot is an effective solution to stop those that park without passes, and parents that use the lot to drop off their children.
Other students believe that another effective solution is integrating the teacher lot with students. Over the course of 20 days, one of the Prospector’s editors counted empty spaces in the lot that holds 159 vehicles. It was found that there was an average of 46 empty spaces everyday.
As more and more students get ticketed, parking remains a difficulty for the students who drive to school.