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September 1, 2005
pcc-courieronline.com
Parking Dilemma
Just Won’t Quit
Vol. 92, Issue 2
New structure adds space, but students
still wait over half an hour to park
Jennifer MacDonald
News Editor
With the end of summer and the begin¬
ning of school comes the frustration of find¬
ing a parking spot at PCC during the first
week of classes.
Anyone can do the math. There are 6, 100
spots on campus and about 24,000 students
enrolled in classes.
Despite the hour-long backup in the park¬
ing structures with many students unable
even to find a spot, PCC police officers
Alfonso Cervantes and Michael DeSpain
remained optimistic about the congestion
situation.
“We have seen light traffic and Pm pretty
sure that’s because of the new structure we
have,” Cervantes said.
In the past, traffic has flowed beyond the
parking lots and onto side streets, eventually
pouring onto Colorado Boulevard, but this
week the streets remained clear.
The new structure, Lot 5, completed at
the beginning of this year, contains 2,000
parking spots. Its design helped to relieve
congestion on the third level because there
are dual entrances and exits on different lev¬
els, the officers said.
In Lot 4, the old structure, officers believe
they have fixed the traffic problem by setting
barriers on the third level to ease congestion
and also to push cars up oi down to the
other levels. “It worked better than past
years,” Cervantes said. “Not as many traffic
jams on Bonnie or Hill.”
Despite the new structure and traffic con¬
trol tactics, students were still stuck in traffic.
“I was looking for like an hour,” said
Victor Campos, a freshman student. “Most
people are mean. They want to get to class
and start then honking.”
When Campos finally found a spot, after
sitting in traffic up to the fifth level of the
new structure and back down to the third
level, he had to win a yelling match with
another driver to get it.
Some students, like Ashley Sailor, chose
not to try their luck at finding a spot. “I did¬
n’t park here because I knew it was going to
be crazy,” she said. Instead, the returning
student got a ride to school.
Freshman Marc Alegado not only made
the mistake of driving to school on the first
day of classes, he also parked on the street
all day in the one-hour parking zone because
he couldn’t find parking anywhere else. “I’ve
got to move it now and look for parking
again,” he said after receiving a parking tick¬
et.
During the first week of school the trick
is to get here early, according to Cervantes.
“They’ll miss all the traffic and be able to
find parking,” he said.
For student Julie Oung, who arrived in
Lot 4 at about 10:45 a.m., it took 40 minutes
for her to park after commuting to PCC
from Los Angeles. “I think maybe later it
will be better,” she said.
Oung is right. By the end of the second
week of classes traffic tensions will ease,
campus police said.
William Hallstrom! Courier
A cadet directs cars into the Lot 4 student parking structure in an attempt to alleviate congestion.
Parking is always an issue around campus, but is usually worst at the start of this semester.
Alligator Lurks in L.A. Lake
Kate Murray
Editor-in-Chief
A number of things might be found in
the famously polluted Los Angeles
waters, but no one expected to come
across an alligator.
Believed to be seven feet in length, the
gator was discovered on Aug. 12 swim¬
ming in Machado Lake in Harbor City,
less than a mile south of downtown L.A.
The reptile, however, definitely wasn’t
from around those parts. Anthony
Brewer, 36, and former Los Angeles
police officer Todd Natow, 42, were
arrested on Aug. 17 in connection with
the alligator’s release. According to
LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, a
visit to Brewer’s home provided investiga¬
tors with evidence such as an alligator
habitat, photos of alligators, drugs, and
live snapping turtles. In Natow’s home,
investigators found three alligators, four
piranha fish, one rattlesnake, three tor¬
toises, six tortoise eggs, and one scorpion,
as well as 10 pounds of marijuana.
McDonnell said Brewer, who is
believed to be the alligator’s owner, hand¬
ed the reptile over to Natow about two
months ago when it became too hard to
handle. Natow, in turn, put the alligator in
the lake.
McDonnell added that all of the ani¬
mals found in the suspects’ homes are cur¬
rently in the care of the state Department
of Fish and Game.
Although Brewer and Natow were
released from custody after posting $500
bail each, McDonnell said both men
could face charges of conspiracy to
release the alligator in Machado Lake and
possessing exotic animals illegally.
Meanwhile, “Reggie,” as the gator has
been nicknamed, has successfully eluded
the attempts made to capture him.
Groups of alligator experts and gator
wranglers have continually tried to corral
him, but with a 53-acre lake and five miles
of swampy canals to work with, it hasn’t
proved easy. Add to that the fact that alli¬
gators can stay underwater for up to an
hour at a time, and you have a very
muddy situation.
“It’s like chasing a needle in a
haystack, but every time you get close to
the needle it leaves at 30 mph,” reptile
wrangler Jay Young told KNBC-TV.
The newest group to try their hand at
catching Reggie are four gator handlers
from Gatorland, a theme park in Orlando,
Florida. Reggie’s celebrity status - draw¬
ing hundreds of onlookers each day - has
prompted Gatorland to offer Reggie a
home in their park. However, the fate of
the animal is still undecided.
“They offered to take it back, but we
haven’t decided that’s the right thing to
do,” said L.A. city councilwoman Janice
Hahn, whose district includes the
Machado Lake area. “After all, it’s an
L.A. gator.”
Once captured, Reggie will stay at the
Los Angeles Zoo for a period of 90 days
until officials decide where he should go.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of issues - pot¬
holes, sidewalks, streets, trees - but not in
my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be
dealing with an alligator,” Hahn said.
TV Star Injured
on Campus
Kate Murray
Editor-in-Chief
Rafael Delgado /Courier
Upper left: Candice Borromeo, VP for Campus Activities,
starts the first day of school with a foam-laced tug of war.
Above: A student wrestles with an inflatable bungee bull
set up in the Quad by the Associated Students.
Lower left: Students endure the never-ending lines found
all over PCC during the first week of school.
Audition Call!
Attention all actors in need of a stage
Auditions for the upcoming
Monster Musical play will be
held today in Sexson
Auditorium. Tryouts will be
from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and
again from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Parts up for grabs include the
Monster, Dracula, the
Draculettes, the mummy, Igor,
Nasty, Wolfmann and his
mommy. For more information
call Director Duke Stroud at
(626) 585- 7262. Oh, and break
a leg.
-Titania Kumeh
Arts Editor
Actress Eva Longoria was injured at PCC on
August 17, when a crew from ABC's “Desperate
Housewives” filmed a prison scene on the PCC cam¬
pus. Actors playing prisoners shook a tall, chain-link
fence pretending to grab at Longoria as she walked
alongside. A large pole, which was supporting the
fence, came loose and hit Longoria on top of the
head. The actress fell to the ground, unconscious.
“It was a scary thing,” Longoria said later. “It
wasn’t something to take lightly when you get a head
injury. It’s pretty serious.”
The set medic attended to Longoria first.
Paramedics arrived a little later and took her to the
hospital for what were thought to be minor injuries.
ABC released this statement regarding the inci¬
dent: “Eva Longoria was slightly injured at the set
today. She was treated at a nearby hospital and
released and is expected to return to work on sched¬
ule.”
Although the actress did return to the show’s
filming on schedule, she suffered a far more serious
injury than was originally reported. Longoria told
Inside Edition that she suffered a concussion, and is
still experiencing headaches from the incident. For a
time, filming of the show had to be scheduled
around Longoria’s pain.
“She’s not completely back to her old self, but
she’s good - they’ve done all the tests,” said
Housewives costar Teri Hatcher. “She just needs to
heal a bit more, so we’re all just letting her do that.”
