# Ballsy Parking in Balboa Park

I recently realized that there's extremely convenient 
parking in Balboa park that few people ever use. But I'm 
not sure that it's permit free parking, and you might annoy 
some people by using it, so you might have to have a big 
set of cojones to use it.

## The Spanish Village Parking Lot

There's a tiny parking lot near the Zoo side of Spanish 
Village. It's close to the miniature train. I'm pretty sure 
its for the employees and business owners of the shops in 
Spanish Village and the miniature train. To get there, you 
have to drive in from Park Blvd towards the giant Morten 
Bay Fig and the Prado Theatre. Just past the entrance to 
Spanish Village is a little alley that runs past the 
back-side of the buildings to the tiny parking lot.

When I was there last, I noticed that there were several 
empty spaces, and not signs saying that the spaces were 
permit-only. I also didn't notice any obvious parking 
permits on the cars that were parked there. At first I 
wondered if all the cars had to drive through Spanish 
Village itself, but then I remembered the alleyway.

I'm not sure about the entrance. Maybe there's a sign that 
warns about not entering or something.

So in a pinch, I guess you could try parking there, but I'd 
check out the signs at the entrance to make sure you won't 
be getting a ticket. Also, if any of the shop owners are 
back there, they might get annoyed if they see you park 
there and then just walk towards the Zoo or something.

## RIP Gold Gulch; Hello Shuttle

Now that my once-reliable Gold Gulch parking is gone, it's 
harder to find parking within the park itself. I actually 
sort of like parking across Park Blvd at what's called 
*Inspiration Point* and taking the little shuttle over into 
the park, but with COVID, I don't think that's running and 
wouldn't take it if it was. Part of the problem is that 
some of the parking lots in the park have been converted 
into pedestrian-only plazas. And that actually makes for a 
nicer experience inside the park, so I'm not too peeved 
about it. I remember when I worked for the trolley tours, 
there was talk that the city wanted to remove ALL the 
parking from within the park and have EVERYONE park outside 
and shuttle in.

## More Pedestrian Space; Maybe Too Much?

The Plaza de Panama, between the El Cid statue and the 
Museum of Art was converted from a parking space to a 
pedestrian plaza several years ago. It seems a little 
awkward now, like there's too much space and not enough to 
do in it when there aren't street vendors taking up space. 
Christopher Alexander talked about an ideal range of 
density for plazas in *A Pattern Language*, but I can't 
remember what it was. 

The end of the parking lot near the Air and Space Museum is 
also converted into a pedestrian-only plaza. It sort of has 
a track around it and last night there were roller-skaters 
using it. But not many, so it had that deserted feel. I 
guess that's good for COVID times; you can stake out a 
table and be far from other people.

One area that bothers me quite a bit is the little sitting 
area right next to the Museum of Man, on the Old Globe side 
of the street. It's the one with the little fountain with 
three faces spitting into the water. That little sitting 
area is a nice rectangular space with benches around the 
perimeter facing inward. Originally, there was a nice tall 
planter area in the center, so if you sat on one of the 
benches, you weren't awkwardly staring at some stranger 
across from you. It was one of my favorite places to sit 
and read. Now that that planter is removed, the big empty 
space makes sitting on the benches awkward. And there's 
nothing to do in that empty space, so it goes unused. Now, 
when I pass buy, that space is usually deserted.