De Bell Drive, located just across a narrow road from the M-A’s Oak Grove gate, has become one of the closest off-campus parking alternatives for some students. But for residents in Maple Manor, the neighborhood around De Bell, the students’ convenience fuels an ongoing concern. As student parking increases, residents say the issue is more than just crowded curbs, and have raised concerns about safety, property damage, and school responsibilities. “A resident wrote a letter and put it on the student’s car, saying they had been running over flowers or kind of ruining the area,” a Maple Manor student resident said.
One anonymous De Bell resident reported that student parking on the street is especially problematic because of the road’s nature. The road is curved, narrow, and lacks shoulders, making it unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. “Even with no parked cars, when walking, we have had to dodge traffic,” the resident said. When cars line the street, visibility worsens even more around blind corners because there is no space, and the view is blocked by parked cars. In some cases, there is not enough room for two cars to pass at once.
“Student parking on neighboring streets is a poor solution, and the school should provide more options for students,” the resident said. “I encourage the school to consider solutions on and contiguous to campus, such as by the sports fields, on Ravenswood, and leased from the church, as well as prioritizing carpools and facilitating biking.”
At the same time, a student who also lives on De Bell offered a more mixed view, acknowledging the parking issue does exist, but describing major problems as less frequent than they are sometimes made out to be. Still, residents do complain about cars driving too fast, parking on bushes or flowers, and creating safety concerns near the blind turn.
Many students park on De Bell simply because they struggle to find alternative options. Several were unlucky and did not receive a campus parking sticker through the raffle system, or couldn’t afford the school permit. Because De Bell is so close to school, it becomes an easy fallback, even though the student said they sometimes see “students driving over flowers or things that are outside of the house.” “Sometimes that’s kind of the only option that they have… if they’re late to class, they’re just gonna park there anyway,” the student said.
The tension on De Bell is not simply a matter of inconsiderate parking or resident overreaction. Instead, it reflects a mismatch between parking demand at school and a nearby neighborhood forced to absorb the overflow. As long as De Bell remains one of the easiest places for students to leave their cars, Maple Manor residents and student drivers may continue to feel the impact of a problem neither side believes they can solve alone.
