City Rejects Students’ Plea for Parking Help

Glendale Community College student leaders appealed to the City Council on Tuesday to remove parking restrictions on residential streets near the campus, but were told the city is not responsible for providing school parking.

Mercedes Delaney, student body president, told council members that the city’s decision in August to post two-hour parking signs on Sweetbriar and Swarthmore drives would worsen an already severe parking crisis at the college.

The city restricted parking on the two streets, west of the Glendale Freeway and just south of the campus, after residents complained about students parking in the area.

“We were unaware that this was going to be in effect,” said Delaney, who presented council members with a petition signed Tuesday by 220 students. “Although this may seem to be a solution for the residents of Swarthmore and Sweetbriar, it is merely putting a Band-Aid on an infected wound.”

But council members told Delaney and other students that the college should seek alternatives, such as car pools, before asking the city for help.

The college, with enrollment expected to reach 14,000 by the end of this week, has up to 8,000 students on campus at any one time, said Michael Southerland, director of campus safety and security. The campus has only one parking lot for students, with 161 day and 260 evening parking spaces for students with permits. About five city-owned lots near the college provide nearly 1,000 spaces, Southerland said.