Balboa Park Cultural Partnership calls on city to reconsider paid parking program

The latest push from the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership comes as museums report a sharp decline in attendance rates after the new paid parking program.

SAN DIEGO — Nearly two weeks after paid parking took effect at Balboa Park, Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, the collaborative body and collective voice for dozens of arts, science and cultural institutions at the park, is asking San Diego city leaders to reconsider the paid parking program. 

In a press conference on Wednesday, the Cultural Partnership leaders, including those from Mingei International Museum, San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego Railroad Museum and the WorldBeat Cultural Center, will address their concerns on how the paid parking program has impacted attendance, staff and volunteers, safety concerns, among others, across Balboa Park. 

Leaders are also expected to announce a new website, SaveBalboaPark.org, which will launch soon. To support the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, residents across San Diego County will be asked to voice their concerns with San Diego City councilmembers and Mayor Todd Gloria using the new website.  

The latest push from the Cultural Partnership comes as museums report a sharp decline in attendance rates. The Cultural Partnership said that in the first “Residents Free” museum day of the year, there was a 25-50% loss in visitors for some organizations. Throughout the entire first week since paid parking was implemented, some organizations had as much as a 57% drop in admissions on some days. 

On Jan. 13, a week after the program was implemented, Comic-Con Museum had its ‘Free Tuesday,’ a day when San Diego County residents can get into different museums for free. On a day when parking lots at Balboa Park tend to be more crowded than usual, CBS 8 saw plenty of spaces. Workers at the Comic-Con Museum told CBS 8 they saw something they had never seen before: no lines. 

Meanwhile, when CBS 8 returned to Balboa Park on Jan. 19, just before Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the San Diego Automotive Museum shared that its head count is down 38% from this time last year. The Chief Operations Officer at the museum also told CBS 8 that 10% of museum volunteers have quit due to paid parking.