Brad Paisley concert brings thousands of fans, parking spills over into neighborhood

Thousands are rocking out to the sounds of A-list country star Brad Paisley on Friday night. With the event, come carloads of fans. But do they have enough places to park? NewsChannel 5 decided to find out how nearby residents are affected by the spill-over of traffic outside the Salinas Sports Complex. We found out, those who live near the Complex, embrace all the extra people and even clean up after them.

“You know, we don’t really mind when there’s a lot of traffic and people parking everywhere. We get excited when there are positive events coming into our community,” said resident Sarah Villa.

Villa said her family has lived in the neighborhood near the Salinas Sports Complex for about 15 years and every time there’s an event, their neighbors see it as a good thing.

“Usually it hasn’t really been a problem. Usually the neighbors here kind of get together and if there is trash or anything, we’ve gotten used to picking it up,” Villa said.

Concert organizers said they planned on getting about 12,000 people, which is a little less than the 16,000 that turned out for The Eagles concert in 2007. They said parking and traffic is something they work on closely with the city.
But for 12,000 people, organizers say they’ve provided 2,250 parking spots.

Many don’t want to pay $20 to park on the Complex grounds, so they drive across the street. If they don’t find a spot on a residential street, they end up in cheaper, make-shift parking lots.

“There’s not enough parking for the rodeo, so we try to help people out,” said Dharmesh Patel with The Continental Motel.

Patel said sometimes people are skeptical but the motels along North Main do their best to keep cars safe, while making a little extra cash.

“Is my car going to be okay? And I tell them ya, I’m going to be here until everything is clear,” Patel said.

The complex said it works with Salinas Police, some paid security and volunteers to make sure events like this concert and the rodeo, are safe from start to finish.