By Santiago Lozano
East Los Angeles College was famous for not having enough parking for their large student body over the years.
Over the past decade ELAC has added two new parking structures on campus. One parking lot is by the stadium, which is called the stadium lot.
The second parking lot is a structure and is actually in the middle of campus right across the swimming gymnasium. The third parking structure is on the east side of campus on the corner of Floral and Collegian Avenue.
Most students seem to enjoy parking their car at the second parking structure that is located in the middle of campus. Students like Destiny Lazalde said, “this parking lot is the closest to all my classes. “
Lazalde is like many other students who prefer to park at the second structure due to its location and accessibility to campus.
Students like Joshua McGuire who has been coming to ELAC for quite some time now prefers the third and newest parking structure at ELAC. McGuire said “I always park here because there is always more parking here then the other two structures, I don’t have to keep making laps to find a an open spot.”
Corie Railey said, “I prefer the newest parking lot because it has less speed bumps and there are less people that park at that structure.”
There are some ELAC students who only park at the stadium. An ELAC student named Josh Rodriquez who is almost ready to leave ELAC and transfer to a University. Rodriquez said “ I park at the stadium parking lot because the parking pass for the semester is cheaper then the other parking pass, I need to save as much money as I can being a college student.”
ELAC offers two kinds of parking passes for the semester. The Associated Student Union parking pass cost twenty-seven dollars for the semester.
With that pass you can park at any three of the parking lots on campus. The second option for a parking pass is the stadium pass.
Romel Lopez ASU President said, “Those seven dollars go into out our seed money and a small portion of that helps fund clubs on campus and their activities.”
The stadium pass only allows you to park at the stadium lot only. This pass only cost 20 dollars for the whole semester.
The stadium pass comes in a different color than the ASU parking pass. That way parking enforcement can tell the difference between the two passes.
There are even students like Cindy Reyes who could afford the ASU parking pass but prefers the stadium pass. She said “ I actually enjoy the long walk to my classes in the morning.”
Deputy Gonzalez over looks security and enforces the rules of the parking structures. Gonzalez said “ the parking structures close at ten at night and will get a ticket that cost thirty dollars if their parking permit is not displayed on their vehicle.” Students cannot speed over 8 miles per hour and not park over hash lines into the next stalls parking lot.
Overall students at ELAC enjoy having multiple parking lots to park at. They appreciate not driving around in laps to find a spot that is available. Other junior colleges have huge parking issues where students have to search for parking longer than 10 minutes.
ELAC has come a long way from having barely any parking to having more than enough parking for its large student body.