SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - North Park residents say the parking crunch in their neighborhood is as bad as ever, with some having to regularly park blocks away from where they live.
"It stinks the next day because you can't just get up and walk to your car and when you're tired," said Catie Taylor, who rents an apartment on Arizona Street.
One potential solution could start gaining momentum -- the creation of a permitted parking district. The idea isn't to fill the block with numerous two-hour parking signs. Instead, it's to issue each resident a placard or windshield sticker that says only they can park in the area after a certain time.
That's exactly the system in place just a couple of miles west in Hillcrest, in the neighborhood surrounding UCSD Medical Center. Parked cars must have 'A' stickers or hang visitor passes between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Establishing a parking district in San Diego starts with getting at least half of the area's residents to sign a petition calling for one. One neighbor said he wants to start one.
Residents would pay annual permit fees of about $15 each, and the San Diego City Council has the final say.
Taylor, already with a few parking tickets in her first year in North Park, said a special district could help.
"Renting these tiny places, and you don't have extra money to spend on random parking tickets all the time," Taylor said, adding the crunch gets especially bad when the city does its bi-weekly street sweeping.
