There are 10 minutes before school starts, so it’s looking like I’ll get to class on time. That is, until I pass under the iron arch and take a loop around the frenzied, overflowing parking lot. Finding no spaces, I return to the arch, and because left turns aren’t allowed, I inch through heavy traffic around 10th Street, Monroe Drive, 9th Street, Charles Allen Drive, back down 10th Street and into the grass lot — only to discover that it’s five minutes past 8:30 a.m.
My story is far from unique. With a school of over 1,300 students and a student lot with 88 spots, mornings become whipping races with the goal of claiming a spot and getting inside on time. For those who lose, the grass lot awaits 10 minutes away. Sure, the problem could be solved in the status quo by urging students to arrive earlier. But what happens when construction begins in 2017 on the new building whose foundations overlay the grass lot? Grady needs a solid parking plan for the future, and considering the timeline for the quickly-approaching construction, the conversation needs to start now. I have two proposals that are equally feasible:
Build a new level of parking on top of the student lot. As it is, the student lot is below the ground level of most of its surroundings. In constructing a new deck, flat paths could lead directly to the courtyard and gyms over the existing stairs. The advantage of this plan is that the number of parking spaces added would double, that the school would not need to take land away from other buildings or athletic complexes and that it would lay the foundations needed to construct additional levels at lower costs in the future. The disadvantage is the cost, which would likely fall between $2 and $3 million. APS set aside $11 million, however, for Grady — outside of the $22 million for the new building — to renovate and refurbish parts of the school in its plans for the cluster expansion with Special Purpose Local-Option Tax dollars, so these costs wouldn’t be too significant of a burden.
Expand the student lot into unused stadium terrain. Two vast expanses of grassy land lie on either side of the track. One is used already for parking during athletic events. The other, twice as large, is adjacent to the student lot and isn’t used for anything but off-season sports captains’ practices. By simply laying asphalt and and marking spots, the school could save piles of money. Unfortunately, the plan wouldn’t add as many parking spaces as the first and would remove a practice area. But APS also plans on razing Walden Middle School to construct new practice fields in its 2017 expansion plan, so sports teams could just move captains’ practices to that off-campus location.
The school’s attempts at curbing student lot overflow have failed. Three years ago, plans to build a bus lane and parking spaces next to 9th Street were sidelined for other projects. For the past two years, the administration has tried to implement parking permits to give upperclassmen student-lot priority and to send underclassmen directly to the grass lot; each year, the permits have gradually disappeared. It’s about time we look to something permanent, or else we’ll have more than just problems of tardiness on our hands — we’ll have angry neighborhood residents complaining about student cars flooding the streets.
