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.
