It’s 8:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. After being stuck in traffic for 30 completely unnecessary minutes and taking two neighborhood detours to get to school, I am greeted with a trainwreck on West Hillside Street.
Why is that? The answer lies in who owns the cars parked there. High School students are terrible drivers. I would be known as the only person in the history of ever to get a parking ticket on Hillside. People stick out, hit the curb, and even hit other cars.
The next time you question why car insurance rates for teenagers are so high, watch students try to park on Hillside before school. It’s an accident waiting to happen.
Maybe that’s why there’s a cemetery right next to our school.
Now, this opinion isn’t all about criticizing the parking on Hillside. For the most part, the parking is decent because of the lines on the ground, which make it very easy to determine how much space your car should take up and visualize the distance between each car.
The problem is when you go further down toward Washington Street and try to park in the parking area without lines.
What were the urban planners even thinking? I don’t think they were at all. A very busy street like Hillside needs to have parking spots outlined or else you’ll end up with disproportionate spaces between each car that total up to five more wasted parking spaces.
Let’s face it, highschoolers do not know how to park and many do not care enough to fix their parking to be orderly. So what’s the very easy solution? Head down to your local Home Depot and grab some paint.
Okay, it actually wouldn’t be that simple. Grabbing a can of paint and painting the ground yourself would probably end up being classified as vandalism. Still, getting a professional job done wouldn’t be too unreasonable.
According to HomeAdvisor, a 50-space parking lot can cost around $300-$500 to paint with stripes. Since the end of Hillside can probably fit about 20 cars, this would be more than doable with the city of Naperville’s budget.
I didn’t know a line of cars could resemble scoliosis, but I guess anything is possible on Hillside. Paint white on the street, or it’s going to be painted in red instead.
Michael Lesniewicz • Mar 7, 2024 at 12:31 pm
The after school buses are the worst! They clearly park in no parking zones in front of the pool! Almost everyday on Hillside. Some one is in danger of getting hit. Pulling out of the parking lot near the pool! This has to stop. These school district buses should know better! Those area’s are clearly marked NO PARKING for a reason! Its for the safety and visibility of traffic as well as students walking. It’s been going on for years now. I wish you would look into this as a news story. Thank you.