No Parking Here

Maria Asprino, a student at Miami Dade College’s West Campus, has to wake up an hour-and-a-half early to find parking.

Anabell Abud, a secretary at Adornus—a high-end cabinetry and home appliances business in Doral— is tired of the constant littering by messy students in the parking lot at her job.

And sophomore  Kevin Castillo, who navigates around West Campus with the assistance of crutches is annoyed that his girlfriend, Susana Rodriguez, has to drop him off in front of the school then search for parking, behind the campus, in front of a canal lit only by lights from the Florida Turnpike.

“It’s very frustrating,” Rodriguez said. “This is a campus. We should have parking.”  

The aggravation is the product of a catastrophic accident two years ago at West Campus that left four construction workers dead and eight others injured after a five-story parking garage under construction collapsed.

But student commuters at the College’s Doral campus—most who are forced to park at International Mall and wait to be shuttled to campus—shouldn’t expect relief anytime soon.  

Although College officials have acknowledged that they have approved plans to demolish and reconstruct the garage, the parking won’t be available to students for about another two years.

The process of dismantling the collapsed parking garage will begin this winter break and is expected to take three to five months. After the dismantlement is complete, construction will take about a year and a half, according to Juan Mendieta the director of communications at Miami Dade College.

College officials have remained tightlipped about the construction company that will  perform the work.

But one thing is certain—students are not happy.

“Parking at International Mall is much further than the campus in distance from my house and I find a lot more traffic,” Asprino said.

Despite the inconvenience, Ana Demahy, the director of administrative and student services at West Campus, said the majority of West Campus students park at International Mall where a 15-minute shuttle ride delivers them to the campus.

“The College has leased space, and we have five shuttles that run on a continuous loop throughout the day,” Demahy said. “There is a shaded seating for students to congregate at the shuttle stop location.”

Some students have gotten crafty and found alternate parking arrangements.  

KX Medical, a business across the street from West Campus, has allowed students to park in their parking lot, free of charge, since the collapse of the garage in October of 2012.

“We’re doing it as a courtesy but only in designated areas,” said Mariela Garcia owner of KX Medical. “They ask for permission and put their KX decal on the windshield.”

Another business located near the West Campus is charging students $35 a month to use their parking lot.  

“I understand there’s no parking,” said Anabell Abud, a secretary at Adornus and an MDC student. “We have an agreement with them. They can park here as long as you respect the parking lot and you don’t make a mess.”

But not everyone is following the rules.

“There have been countless times where there are McDonald’s bags on the floor and garbage,” Abud said.  “We have very good, high income customers and if they see our lot is a mess then that’s going to tell them how we treat our products.”

Work on the parking lot at West Campus was delayed due to haggling in the courtroom. Companies like Ajax Building Corp., Coreslab Structures Miami, Florida Lemark Corp., MEP Structural and Inspections and Solar Erectors US, which were all contributors to the construction of the parking garage, were fined more than $38,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Association for errors that caused the collapse of the five-story college parking garage.

In addition, the original contractor refused to dismantle the garage and wanted to just fix the damage instead of starting over, college officials said.

“Legal action has been at heart of the delay,” Mendieta said.

The parking garage, which was three-fourths complete at the time of the collapse in 2012, was originally started in Jan. of 2012 . It was expected to be completed in December of that year. The job was a $22.5 million dollar project that was supposed to include include more than 1,500 parking spaces, an amphitheater, an outdoor area and a partially covered stage.

Two years later—students are still waiting. But some of them are starting to see positive signs.

“I hope that once the garage opens our enrollment rate will increase and more students will see the great opportunities that MDC West has to offer,” said West Campus Student Government Association President, Jennifer Harrison.