BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- It can be nearly impossible to find a parking spot in certain Buffalo neighborhoods and now people living near the D’Youville College campus are getting fed up.
Bumper-to-bumper cars line the streets around D’Youville making it hard for people like Lynn Walter to find a place to park.
“I used to be able to come to work at 8:00 in the morning, park anywhere I wanted and I’d be fine,” said Walter. “Now I have to come to work at 6:30 because by 7:00 a.m. the students start coming for their classes.”
Walter works at a senior living complex next to D’Youville and she’s lived on Prospect Ave. for 37 years.
She told News 4 the parking has gotten worse in the neighborhood.
“In the last six years, more and more congestion, as the school has built the pharmacy school, now they have the brand new school on Niagara,” said Walter.
Residents are trying to brainstorm solutions and they’re calling on the city and college to fix the problem.
“Get a parking ramp in there that would hold 500 or 600 cars,” said Mary Morella, “That would help.”
Morella has lived in the neighborhood for 52 years. She told News 4 that she and her husband are both shift workers.
“I have to take my husband’s parking spot in the morning and he has to take my parking spot,” she said.
D’Youville’s parking map shows there are nearly a dozen parking lots on campus. It costs students $70 for a parking pass.
“They have all these parking lots, when I drive around they’re never full,” said Lynn Walter.
Students told News 4 they can’t always park in the lots.
“We just opened the new SASE building and there’s still not a lot of parking spots so people have to park on the streets,” said Christina Horton, a student. ”It’s very difficult to find a spot.”
D’Youville’s parking map also shows students where they can park on the street. Some people who live in the neighborhood want residential parking permits.
“I would get a parking permit,” said Walter. “I wouldn’t even really care if it were $25 or $50 as long as I knew I had someplace to place my vehicle.”
In order for that to happen, the state legislature would have to approve a parking permit system for Buffalo residents. It’s been voted down in the past.
D’Youville did not let the media into the meeting on Tuesday night so we weren’t able to ask them for a response. We will bring you that information as soon as possible.
