Parking For G-Prep Major Neighborhood Concern

On school days, cars jam into streets around Gonzaga Preparatory School, 1224 E. Euclid, some ringing curbs, some near fire hydrants and some displacing parking spaces of longtime residents.

Just ask Cleone Wigen, 78, a resident of East Dalton for 50 years who has trouble getting in and out of taxi cabs in the winter because of snow piles and bumper-to-bumper cars on both sides of the street.

“It just seems to get worse every year,” she says. “I have guys coming to mow my lawn today with a pickup and a trailer. Where are they going to park?”

Wigen and others are not imagining things: The parking situation at the private high school has gotten worse as enrollment has climbed to 955 students with the advent of a program that allows more flexible tuition payments.

The Jesuit school, too, draws from North Idaho where the driving age is 15.

After Carey Kent, a 24-year-old mother of three, lugged her three kids and groceries around to the front of her house because she had to park in the alley, she went in and talked with a school secretary.

“This is a public street, and I know they have every right to park here. Yet it seems if a person buys a home in Spokane, they should be able to park in front,” says Kent.

Dozens of other residents have expressed a similar view and last spring wrote a letter to Gonzaga Prep officials.

Twyla Moore, a member of the neighborhood steering committee who lives a block from G-Prep, organized the meeting this summer and said cramped side streets was only one of the concerns.

Other complaints stem from high school students simply acting their age.

Students have littered on lawns, made U-turns over private yards, sped around corners and “flipped off”’ residents who ask them to pick up their fast-food garbage, according to Moore.

In response to the concerns, administrators have written a letter to parents encouraging car pools and urging sophomores not to drive. The parking crunch traditionally grows in spring as sophomores turn 16 and get licenses.

Officials say there are 226 student parking spaces on campus, and car-pooling drivers have priority. The school estimates that 75 other cars are parking on neighborhood streets, said Mike Haugen, dean of students.

The school has agreed to better police the illegal parking, and said all cars driven by students are registered in the office. If there is a problem with litter or illegal parking, the school can take action.

“I’ve dealt with one kid already with regards to littering,” said Haugen.

Respect for the community is also being stressed this year, and administrators said they would set up a meeting with student leaders and residents of the neighborhood.

Haugen also urged neighbors to contact city police for better parking enforcement.

“Obviously if they’re breaking the law, that’s a police issue,” he said.

Mike Arty, the administrator who met with neighbors in August, said other solutions sought by residents - such as building more parking - is not that simple. There is a shortage of both campus space and money, he said.

“At this point we’re just trying to do the best we can,” said Arty. “It’s not unlike other high schools … Rogers, Shadle. I’ve been there and it’s the same thing; there are kids parked all over.”

But Wigen doesn’t think she’s asking for much.

“If they’d just give me a space in front of my house, that’s all I want,” she says.

, DataTimes