To accommodate the influx of students, San Diego Mesa College has instituted additional parking this semester to help ease the burden of finding parking on campus.

According to the Parking and Construction page of the Mesa College website, additional parking arrangements have been made with the San Diego National Guard Armory (located on Mesa College Drive), providing students with an extra 208 parking spaces, and is within walking distance of Mesa College. These spaces are available in the rear parking lot of the National Guard Armory, but the front parking lot is reserved for the Armory staff.

Access to these spaces is crucial since the “A” Overflow Lot has now been restricted to only staff/faculty use, which is a loss of 50 parking spaces. Adherence to the rules and regulations of the Amory lots is vital for future contractual needs. However, these lots will be unavailable to students on certain dates. Please refer to the Parking and Construction page of the Mesa College website for the specific dates.

Initially, Mesa College also provided a shuttle service, which was located at San Diego Community College District North City Center on 8401 Aero Drive. The shuttle would drop students off at Armstrong Place near the Allied Health Education & Training Facility (S Building). However, this service has been discontinued due to under usage, according to monitoring from the SDCCD Parking Services.

There are some ways students can help with the parking crisis. As always, students should come to school with enough time to get to class. Leaving 10 minutes earlier will give students more time and opportunity to find parking, as well as minimizing the parking franticness. If able to, students should carpool to school. This will lessen the stress on students and create more parking spaces.

Mesa College student Saul Parra is an example of a student overwhelmed by the chaotic parking, but decided to do something about it.

“It would take over 15 minutes to find parking here. It’s crazy,” said Parra.

Parra decided to avoid the whole issue and began carpooling with friends.

“It just makes things much easier,” said Parra.

Public transportation is also an option. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System has routes that run all over the San Diego County. This also eliminates the parking hassle altogether, all the while creating more parking spaces.

Another choice is for students to bike to school. There are bike racks located throughout the campus and some near classes, which can be convenient. Without the need to find parking spaces, students will have more time to get to class. Also, biking is another way to fit in some exercise in the daily routine.

For further information, visit the Parking and Construction page of the Mesa College website at http://www.sdmesa.edu/parking/index.cfm.