Headed to Rose Parade? These Parking Secrets Are Sure to Help
Hundreds of thousands of Rose Parade spectators will soon be staking out a precious patch of Colorado Boulevard sidewalk. But where in the heck are their cars?
This is the back-street story of parking secrets, little-known facts, beloved parking lot traditions, and the entrepreneurial spirit that unfolds in Pasadena beginning Monday.
What’s most important for parade-goers to know is that there is more than enough parking in dozens of garages and lots near the six-mile route. One cut-rate garage two blocks from Colorado was all but empty last year.
“We never oversell our garages,” said Janice Rhodes, Pasadena’s parking manager.
The first step in securing a parking space is to determine your monetary resources, how far you want to walk, and your parking personality type: Conservative or risk-taker? Early riser or latecomer? Moneybags or cash-strapped?
Well-heeled conservatives have already bought their worry-free permits. That’s why, Rhodes said, all the $40 parking spaces nearest the parade’s Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards launching point are sold out.
Don’t even think of approaching an Old Pasadena-area lot on New Year’s morning unless you have a permit. Tightened security won’t let you in.
Conservatives without a parking permit or grandstand seat can still buy slots farther down the parade route, especially past Allen Avenue.
Sindee Riboli, president of Sharp Seating, the “official Tournament of Roses” seating and parking company, said sales are “a little low this year,” and hopes for an 11th-hour rush.
But don’t expect a parking lot sale. Spaces range from $20 to $40 at the nearly 60 lots she manages for the parade. Because it’s too late to have your parking permits and tickets mailed, conservatives will have to drive today or Monday to Sharp’s office, 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 140 (free parking available).
Early rising risk-takers should have few problems finding a space--perhaps even a free street slot.
Overnight parking restrictions have been lifted on most residential streets in Pasadena--except within one block of the parade route for security reasons.
Locals who live two to four blocks off Colorado say the parking invaders begin arriving on their streets about midnight.
“People who come here are the regulars. They know the area. They know what to do,” said resident Claudia Haskett of Rose Villa Street. “It’s a good group. They have never blocked my driveway.”
By about 5 a.m., however, the streets are full.
But late-rising risk-takers with a $20 bill can still find a place in a garage. The trick is to navigate around so that you enter the parade area from the south, where most of the garages are located.
Riboli and Rhodes suggest trying the new lots near the Paseo Colorado shopping center, off Green Street between Los Robles and Marengo avenues. Riboli also suggests trying a Pasadena City College lot at 1565 E. Del Mar Blvd.
And here’s a secret for the late-rising risk-taker who is also cash-strapped:
For only $10 you can find a garage space. Corporate Center Pasadena, off Lake Avenue between Del Mar and Cordova Street, has a whopping 2,000 cut-rate spaces only two blocks from the route.
Last year, parking manager Nate Tilghman said he sold only 30 of them. He’s going to open one more year to see if business is better.
“Everyone else is higher and we’re only two blocks away,” Tilghman said in his best sales voice.
Another alternative is to scope out the many residential entrepreneurs, who sell off their front lawns to the parking desperate.
Neftali Lopez of Meridith Street said his landlord traditionally shows up after midnight to squeeze yet more money from his property.
“He can get about 20 cars in the front yard,” Lopez said. “I think he sells the spaces for about $10.”
Small businesses along the route cut deals with Sharp to loan out their lots and Colorado Boulevard frontage space, earning handsome sums of cash.
The manager of the Pasadena Auto Sound property said it is paid $6,000 to $8,000 for 40 parking spaces and 1,000 grandstand seats on its swatch of property. Maria Toledo, manager of a Carl’s Jr. restaurant, also estimates her lot and grandstand payoff to be about $6,000.
Rhodes said Pasadena will take in more than $120,000 in parade fees. However, much of that will be absorbed by the high cost of running the garages with ample security and attendants on a holiday.
Riboli declined to say how much her business makes off the Rose Parade. “We are a family-owned, profit-making businesses. Our financials are private.”
The congregants of several churches along Colorado are all too happy to announce how much they make off an important source of revenue: parking and grandstand seat sales.
The Rose Parade tradition at Holliston Methodist Church brings in $58,000, the congregation’s biggest fund-raiser of the year. The church sells a special package that includes a $45 grandstand seat, $15 parking space and a $7.50 ham and egg breakfast served by volunteers.
“We’ve been doing this for nearly 40 years,” said Karen Radcliffe Smith, director of development and the pastor’s wife. “It’s vital to the annual operations of our church.”
About 170 seats still are available, she said, pitching her parade package as a “way to have fun and support a church.”
Once the parade is over, regular parking rates start kicking in around noon at most garages--the cost depending on various and complex formulas of hours and validations.
Few lots are more confusing than the new Paseo Colorado underground garage, where a sophisticated computer system designed to streamline garage ticketing has backfired.
The problem is that few people are familiar with the “Pay-by-Foot” computer, which requires that shoppers obtain a computer validation card from merchants and restaurants. Not only has management printed up an eight-point rate schedule, but it has had to station an attendant at each terminal to help the confused.
