Fifth Formers struggle to find parking

For many students, the struggle of a school day begins at 8:45 a.m. when their first-period class begins. However, there are a group of Fifth Form students whose morning scramble begins a bit earlier as a result of parking difficulties. As Fifth Formers are not permitted to park on campus, they must locate rare off-campus parking spots.

     Fifth Former Colby McNeely, who arrives at school around 8:15 a.m., has dealt with the infuriating experience of parking dating back to last school year. McNeely parks on Barrett Avenue, directly behind the nearby Wendy’s.

     “It was the only street I found that didn’t have two-hour parking,” McNeely said.

     After parking there a few times, he ran into issues with nearby residents who grew unhappy with McNeely, among other students, for parking on their street—even though it is legal. 

     McNeely said, “Last year, [one of the people who lives in a nearby home] put a cardboard sign with a bad word on my car. Then, this year, after school when I went to my car, my license plate was halfway bent and [presumably a nearby resident] stole my magnet on the back of my car that said ‘Haverford Inter-Ac Baseball Champions.’ My car also had some key marks on it.” 

     After Colby switched to parking his car on a different street, he faced new problems, including three parking tickets in a matter of a couple of months for violating the two-hour parking rule, twice by less than twenty minutes. 

     “So, yeah, it’s pretty bad,” McNeely said. 

     Colby is not the only Fifth Former who has dealt with the parking dilemma. Fifth Former Will Morris has experienced similar problems, but on a different street than McNeely. 

     “I park behind Dr. Nagl’s house on Millbrook Lane, but the people are not okay with it, even though it is legal,” Morris said. “People don’t like it because the streets are kind of narrow.”

     Unlike McNeely, Morris has had face-to-face interactions with some Millbrook Lane residents.

     “This year, some guy started coming out and asking me not to park near his house for safety reasons. He said that if people park there, fire trucks will not be able to get through in case of a fire,” Morris said. “You’re legally allowed to park there, but almost every other day the neighbors come out and ask me to park in another place. Every time I move to a new place, those neighbors ask me to move somewhere else.”

     For Fifth Former Max Rosenberger, the narrow streets are the worst of the problem. 

“Neighbors don’t care if I park near their houses, but I have had my mirror taken off clean because it’s a pretty narrow street,” Rosenberger said.

     While the Fifth Formers understand that there is not much that the school can do to relieve these parking struggles, McNeely came up with a couple ideas.

     “They [Haverford School] should talk to some of the people on nearby streets or find a way to pay for a street nearby that would allow students to park, since only seniors are allowed to park on campus.”