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June 11, 2010
Matt Moore
For several years now, parking on Eggers has been haphazard. Although there is a senior parking lot on Country Way, it is inconvenient for seniors to park there who have classes in the E building or the F building. Additionally, the senior parking lot is practically a deathtrap; it’s filled with rowdy teenagers blasting music and driving fast. In just this last semester, there have already been a handful of accidents. To top it off, there aren’t enough senior parking spots for the entire class.
For students who have to park on Eggers, the options are not much better. Not only is there an extremely limited amount of parking space, half of Eggers has been made into a “loading zone” from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is a ridiculous time constraint because for the most part no one drops off students during school hours, and even before school many parents simply stop in the middle of the road to let there students out. Often after school you can see parents stopped in the red zone of Eggers, despite the multitude of signs announcing “no stopping at any time.” This poses a considerable danger to students and drivers coming through Eggers before and after school, with the entire street clogged with cars that are all jockeying for a better position.
For student drivers who come after the rat race to a decent parking spot on Eggers, there are really only a few options, and none of them are desirable. Parking in the “loading zone” although it is convenient, is risky considering the hefty $60 fine levied against violators. If you really want to take a chance, you could choose to park on Fabian, and pray you don’t get towed. What is especially outrageous is that although Fabian St. is reserved for the apartment residents, who have reserved parking spaces within the apartment complex, Fabian St. is usually empty save for a handful of cars. The immense amount of parking space is being wasted and not being put to good use, and no one seems to be doing anything about it. If you don’t like either of those options, you could always park in the teacher lot as many have resorted to doing, but you risk angering teachers whose spot you may be occupying, which could lead to Officer Foote coming and having a talk with you. Your final option is to park all the way in the Quikstop parking lot, where you could potentially be a victim of a hit and run, not even mentioning the even longer walk from Quikstop to school than if you had just parked on Country Way.
The real answer to the parking problems of Washington High School is to create another parking lot. This would lead to a decrease in accidents and citations, as well as in increase in everyone’s total happiness. This way, the police wouldn’t have to deal with violators, and teachers would no longer have to deal with students pirating their parking spots. It could potentially lead to a decrease in tardies as well, because students arriving in the morning before school, or after ROP wouldn’t have to spend time searching for a parking spot. Apartment residents would no longer be plagued by illegally parked students on their street, and residents of houses on Eggers wouldn’t be blockaded by the multitude of cars plaguing their driveways and sidewalks.
There are several areas that could serve this purpose. Converting a portion of the gigantic freshman football field would be easy and convenient, while not taking a great deal of space from the sports teams or the P.E. classes. Another option would be coming to an agreement with the apartment complex on where students could park on Fabian St., especially because the apartment complex residents never take advantage of the street’s parking opportunities.
Although a solution to the parking problems of high school is most likely several years off, getting the ball rolling on discussing the atrocious parking situation is the first key to obtaining a better parking situation. The student drivers of Washington, if they ever want a solution to the problem, will have to begin a dialog with school administrators if they ever want change. Hopefully in a few years time, the horror of parking at Washington High School will be a distant memory.
