HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/10/2018 Item 15, Humphrey
Purrington, Teresa
From:Keith Humphrey <keithhumphrey@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, July 9,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Proposed Ferrini Road Parking District
Dear Mayor and City Council,
I was terribly disturbed to learn about the parking district on Ferrini Road and the proposed hours, given that the public
parking on that street serves the local elementary school and its facilities.
Parents depend on those spaces for safe drop off and pick up from school, and I am concerned that eliminating viable
spaces, while making for a more appealing street to the residents, creates a potentially unsafe situation for dropping off
children. The school does not have enough spaces on it's site to accommodate staff and parents. Additionally, the
school regularly invites parents to school events, particularly awards assemblies for students. This would prohibit parents
from being vibrant, supportive partners in their children's education - something that we know is a critical factor for
student's success. I am certain that the neighbors, who deserve unclogged streets, did not intend to put our children at
risk or restrict our involvement in the local schools.
There are also impacts for the local sport teams that use the fields at Pacheco for games, and without ample parking
around the park parents will not be able to attend their children's games.
I would strongly suggest that the City Council give this situation further time for discussion, and not to pass a major
change when the school is out of session and unable to communicate effectively with families. Making a change while the
school is out of session does not build relationships of integrity between Council and residents of the city.
Some additional options to consider:
- not implementing the parking district 30 minutes before and after both drop off and pick up times at school.
- providing the school and local sports teams digital passes that parents can print at home when they need to park in the
neighborhood to attend athletic or school events.
- coordinating with the school on heavy parent attendance times such as assemblies, fund-raising and educational events,
graduations, etc to suspend the parking district for those times (imagine all of the parents of 6th grade students getting
tickets for parking in the neighborhood to attend their children's graduation!)
- turning Throop Park in to parking for the school to avoid on-street parking.
Again, while well intentioned, I think this proposed district has unintended impacts that have not been fully considered or
mitigated.
Thank you,
Keith Humphrey
-------------------------- Keith B. Humphrey, Ph.D. keithhumphrey@yahoo.com
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