Marc Havlik

Overcrowding in the Churchill parking lot has left many upperclassmen frustrated with all the underclassmen who are making the parking lot too busy and crowded with their cars.

There is honestly nothing more frustrating or annoying than driving into the Churchill Avenue parking lot at the end of lunch to find that the entire lot is completely full.

This has unfortunately become a regular occurrence for many seniors and juniors, in the past few months.

There are three main causes of this problem. Firstly, the lot is too small and is in desperate need of a renovation; sophomores are now getting their licenses and parking permits, therefore they are now taking up the little space present. Because of a combination of these issues, parking at Palo Alto High School has become an utter nightmare and an exhausting experience.

In order to fix this problem the Churchill lot should only be for upperclassmen. While this may seem unfair and unjust to the underclassmen, in reality it makes the most sense.

By creating the junior and senior lot, parking will not be a constant struggle because there will be enough room for everyone. The upperclassmen will be able to park in the Churchill lot, and everyone else will have enough room in the El Camino lot. For some people, parking in the Churchill lot is the most convenient because of where they live.

The extremely overcrowded parking lot can create a dangerous environment because students park illegally and drive at high speeds in order to secure their spot. Senior Malaika Drebin has similar views on the safety of the Churchill lot.

“Restricting parking to upperclassmen only makes sense because it decreases the overcrowding issue, and drivers with more experience are more likely to be responsible. Drebin said. “The parking lots are chaotic enough as it is.”

Last year, around this time of the year, there was always enough room, but because of the growing class sizes each year, this parking problem was created and will only continue to worsen. By creating two separate lots, these problems would be easily solved. The easiest way to regulate the lots will be to create different colored parking permits for the under and upperclassmen. This way, regulating the lots would be much faster and easier for the administration rather than checking the numbers of the permits for each individual vehicle.

Some could argue that by creating an upperclass man lot, tension between the classes would escalate. However, the amount of sophomores that this policy would affect would be minimal compared to the amount of upperclassmen that it would greatly help.

Sophomore Maddie Kuppe agrees that the junior-senior lot would not really affect the sophomore drivers and it could greatly help the upperclassmen in their search for parking.

“I think [the upperclassman lot] is a good idea because as seniors and juniors, they should get more benefits as drivers,” Kuppe said.

Granite Bay High school has implemented a junior and senior parking lot and has allowed the sophomores to park on the street alongside the high school.

While it initially created some upset within the underclassmen, it has greatly helped their traffic flow and made more parking spaces available.

Many juniors and seniors agree that creating a junior-senior lot would greatly benefit the school’s parking situation.

“I love the idea,” junior Cory Tenanes said, “At times the lot can get pretty crowded.”

Another reason to create the upperclassman lot would be because a large majority of the juniors and seniors have first and second period preparatory periods. Because of their preps, when they arrive to school, all of the spaces in the Churchill lot are usually taken because of the sophomores forcing the upperclassmen to either park on Castilleja street or in the El Camino lot. While this would not be a terrible option, many seniors feel that they have waited and earned their spots in the Churchill lot.

Ultimately, creating an upperclassmen lot would benefit the majority of the school’s driving population. The parking lot would require some reorganization and the administration’s help to enforce it, but it would be a great addition to the Paly rapidly over populating campus.