Students and staff continue to complain about the amount of available parking at the Liberal Arts Campus, but limited stalls are not the problem, we as a collective body are the issue.
Long Beach City College currently offers 20 parking lots in total at LAC, seven of which are designated only for staff, and the rest are available spots for students and staff.
The number of staff and student parking spaces are assessed by the college every few years.
If a few spots happen to get displaced due to construction or other circumstances, LBCC will compensate for the loss and divide the amount of lost spaces equally between the staff and students.
When evaluating the overall number of lots, it is almost bizarre to believe that anyone is frustrated with the amount of parking spaces at the college.
The real ‘problem’ with parking is that students and staff that come later in the afternoon are accustomed to parking in a certain area based off of where their class or office is.
Take the T and V buildings for example.
A bulk of general education classes such as psychology, political science, history, communications and math all take place in the T and V buildings, which happen to be in the same area as the parking structure.
Since many students are enrolled in at least one general education course, it can result in the parking structure constantly being full.
Convenience is never a bad thing, but realistically you can’t expect the college to accommodate for everyone’s parking preferences.
If finding an open parking spot close to your class is an issue, try to make your own accommodations, such as leaving a few minutes earlier than usual.
The morning and the afternoon are the busiest times of the day in terms of parking. When you know you have a class in the morning, give yourself about 30 minutes to get to school and find a spot, that way you can comfortably park and make it to class on time.
Although it may be out of the way, the Veterans Stadium always has plenty of available parking spaces. So when you happen to be running late and feel like there won’t be a close spot, use that time to walk from the stadium to your class instead of pointlessly driving in circles hoping to catch someone leaving.
For those that don’t care to get their steps in, LBCC also offers you the option to park at the stadium, where a shuttle can take you to your class building every 10 minutes.
The shuttle also transports students every 30 minutes from PCC to LAC, so if you have classes at both campuses you don’t have to worry about finding another spot.
Another option is for students who have class around or at the same time as a friend can carpool with them. Two cars now turn into one, allowing more space for other students or staff when their spots are all full.
If finding a somewhat close and open spot is still a pressing issue, students and staff can opt out of driving by using public transportation like the Long Beach Transit or even bringing out that old bike that’s probably collecting dust.
Parking is only an issue when we make it an issue. The college tries it’s best to provide its students and staff with enough parking stalls and alternatives for everyone to fit.
It’s up to us as a whole to consider other options given and utilize them, instead of just making the blanket statement that ‘parking sucks.’