The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Neighbors hope red curbs will fix parking problem By Justin Berton Red paint and a little elbow grease is the solution to an ongoing parking problem in a neighborhood near San Antonio Park, councilmembers unanimously decided at the Dec. 12 meeting. Curbs on Enderby Way will be painted red in response to neighbor complaints that cars belonging to soccer players and their parents crowd the streets on weeknights and Saturday mornings. Neighbors who spoke at the meeting said the violators--who sometimes blocked driveways and dumped trash from post-game snacks in their yards--were parking in the neighborhood to take advantage of a short-cut pedestrian path that leads from Enderby Way to the soccer field. The parking lot designed to accommodate park users is located at the far end of San Antonio Park--twice as far as spots on the street. To stymie the short-cutters, a city planner who investigated the complaints suggested closing the pedestrian path. One resident circulated a petition in support of the idea, and it gained some support. In response, another petition against the closing of the path also made the rounds throughout the small neighborhood, which is located in the southwest corner of the city. In the end, though, most who spoke at the council meeting agreed that closing the path was not the best solution--getting rid of the lazy soccer players was. "They've treated the whole cul-de-sac as if it was their own driveways," resident Gloria Hogenauer said. "I'm sure their abusiveness will return." Hogenauer and 10 other residents said soccer-playing teenagers and their parents were verbally abusive when approached. "I don't think anyone wants to close the walkway," Hogenauer said. "But we do have a problem that nobody wants to live with." Short of painting the curbs or closing the walkway, said parks and recreation director Robert Walker, there is little the city can do to rid the park of the soccer players. Walker said the girls who play at the park on Saturday mornings and practice during the week were not part of an organized league. The games are played by loosely organized "pick-up" teams, and therefore, Walker said, cannot be barred from using the field. "That's not illegal, and we don't discourage that type of use," he said. Now, residents who live near the walkway hope the red curbs will redirect the soccer players to the correct parking lot and put an end to the problem. Kara Gant, a resident who lives next to the entrance of the pedestrian path, asked councilmembers to take some sort of action to fix the problem. While in the process of purchasing her home three months ago, Gant said the real estate agent notified her of the parking issue. "I never thought it would be this bad, though," she said. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 20, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.