\u00a0Homeless shelter beds full as hundreds sleep in heat at Kern River\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n“What’s going on here? The parking lot is full over there. I see all of these signs \u2013 are we Downtown LA now?” said Bakersfield resident Michael Curtis. “(They’re) trying to just take all of our money.”<\/p>\n
Some customers didn’t see the point of paying for parking.<\/p>\n
“I just don’t understand why,” said Elizabeth Hardison. “I mean, this is Valley Plaza \u2013 like l I’ve been coming here my whole life.”<\/p>\n
Others said the move is downright wrong.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s right because we already come to shop here,” said Jesus Lopez. “We pay taxes, and all that stuff. So, I don’t see why they should be charging for parking.”<\/p>\n
Even mall employees are upset.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had my car broken into. My coworkers have also had their cars broken into multiple times. So it’s a matter of our safety,” said Genessie Falk.<\/p>\n
Enforcement for preferred parking has already begun. Mall security is handing out citations to those who don’t pay to park in the front.<\/p>\n
Khan says people still have options if they dont want to pay. She said out of thousands of parking spots at Valley Plaza, only a few hundred are preferred parking.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t want this option, there is still ample places to park for free,” Khan said. “Again, this is just an opportunity for convenience. That’s all it is.”<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 The hunt for a better parking spot at Valley Plaza may be over, if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,171345,28317,171002,171344,27786],"class_list":["post-431150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-lindsay-khan","tag-parking-spot","tag-preferred-parking","tag-premier-parking","tag-valley-plaza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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