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Student vehicles towed near Downtown campus

NO PARKING: Nearly 70 vehicles were towed from a private dirt lot north of ASU's Downtown campus on Monday and Tuesday.  Many of the vehicles belong to students who park there on a daily basis. (Photo by Lisa Bartoli)
NO PARKING: Nearly 70 vehicles were towed from a private dirt lot north of ASU's Downtown campus on Monday and Tuesday.  Many of the vehicles belong to students who park there on a daily basis. (Photo by Lisa Bartoli)

Many ASU students were stunned to find their vehicles towed near the Downtown campus Monday and Tuesday.

Mass towing began Monday around 1 p.m. for vehicles parked in the dirt parking lot located on McKinley and Central streets. Students claim that for years they have used this parking lot free of charge.

The parking lot is only for employees and customers of the Phoenix Public Market and Royal at the Market Coffee Bar, which is conjoined with the market.

Towing company officials from All Valley Impound said at least 46 vehicles were towed from the parking lot Monday and at least 20 were towed Tuesday. The current rate to redeem vehicles is $117.

Cindy Gentry, market store manager of the Phoenix Public Market and executive director of Community Food Connections, said she made a phone call to All Valley Impound Monday after an ASU student disrespected her.

She said she spotted him parking in the privately owned dirt lot and told him he could not park there or else be towed. She said he disregarded her statement, waited for her to go back inside and parked his car.

Gentry then called the towing company, which towed all illegally parked vehicles out of the full lot. Gentry made the call again to have the vehicles removed on Tuesday.

The towers went inside the Public Market and asked if any customers were parked in the lot before towing the vehicles.

Gentry said tickets couldn’t be issued on private lots, which is why the vehicles were towed instead.

“I get that parking is an issue, but take that up with the school,” Gentry said. “Students are compromising our small businesses.”

Social work senior Aaron Medina was excitedly telling his mother about a master’s program as he walked to his car Tuesday.

His tone went from enthusiastic to dumbfounded as he approached the vacant lot where he remembered leaving his car.

“We’ve been parking here for a long time,” Medina said. “The day I get here early enough to get a spot my car gets taken away.”

He said a warning would have been nice. In the $5 lot located next to ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and at parking meters students get warnings and tickets, Medina said, but never once had he been towed.

“It’s so inconvenient. I think a warning would suffice if you’ve never had a parking violation before,” Medina said.

Kurt Schneider, who owns the land, has been faced with a more than $1,000 tax levy from the county because of students’ illegal parking, Gentry said.

The county assessed the private lot as a parking lot and assumed the landlord was charging people to park there, Gentry said. He can’t have free parking in a private parking lot because that goes against city code, she said.

Schneider has paid up to $1,500 in just court fees for last semester and is looking at the same financial burden again this semester, she said.

Gentry said Schneider has revoked everyone’s parking privileges in the dirt lot, including those for employees and customers.

“It’s my job is to protect our business here,” Gentry said. “It’s just not fair for him. He only charges us rent for the space, but not parking space or landscaping fees.”

Towing associates stood in the dirt parking lot around 11 a.m. Tuesday, warning students to avoid parking there because tow trucks were on their way. The towing associates had no comment other than they are just doing their job.

Vehicles from the lot were towed across the street to another private lot, where larger tow trucks came to pick them up for the impound lot located near 39th Avenue and West Lower Buckeye Road.

Over the past two weeks, new signs were added to the lot that read: “Tenant Parking Only — violators will be towed at the owner’s expense.”

Other signs along the perimeter of the lot were also added.

Erenia Pool, co-owner of Matt’s Big Breakfast, a restaurant across the street from the lot, said from a local business perspective, illegal parking causes customers to lose their spots.

“It’s hard to survive as a small business owner,” Pool said. “At first I was appalled when I saw they were towing students’ cars.”

After walking to the lot Tuesday from her business, located on North First and McKinley streets, Pool saw the warning signs that were posted.

“The signs are pretty clear. Students take the risk of being towed by parking there,” Pool said.

Social work senior Sarah Western said she felt “thoroughly ticked off” and had used this lot since January.

She said the only signs she could remember were about restricted parking for the Phoenix Public Market on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

“I think at most they should have given tickets, then everyone would know this is not the place to park,” Western said. “But to tow everyone, charge $117 and figure out ways to go get our car is ridiculous.”

Dwayne Allen, owner of The Breadfruit, a Jamaican restaurant located on Pierce and First streets, drove over Tuesday to witness the mass towing.

Allen said these towers aren’t part of the Downtown community and don’t care about the students or sentiment of the community.

He said he doesn’t agree with the towing and believes if it’s an empty lot then students should be allowed to use it.

“People are not going to want to come Downtown because it’s going to be known for only towing cars,” Allen said.

Reach the reporter at tchavez3@asu.edu


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