Lack of parking at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium angers nearby homeowners

On most days in Edmonton’s Parkdale neighbourhood, it’s calm and quiet. But right now, there’s a buzz among neighbours about how loud and busy the community across the street from Commonwealth Stadium was three nights ago.

Toronto-born pop star The Weeknd sang in front of a sold-out crowd of 56,000 people Saturday night, and some of those who drove to the show packed residential roads for parking, causing headaches for neighbours.

“Oh, what a mess. It was a mess, and they were lined up, like, all these streets, all these first two streets I think, were all lined up with people trying to find parking,” said Marlene Rhodenizer, who has lived in Parkdale for 24 years.

Rhodenizer has lived two blocks north of the stadium for 24 years.

Even though signs like this throughout the area tell people visiting Commonwealth they can’t park here, she says people take a chance on not getting ticketed or towed, feeling more often than not, they get away with it.

Saturday night, during The Weeknd’s concert, she filed at least 10 separate parking complaints with the city online. All of them were dismissed as duplicates.

“I think that people need to respect us. I don’t see that, and the city needs to respect us too,” said Rhodenizer.

Even though the city says about 15,000 people left the concert using the LRT across the street, parking officers still needed to hand out 167 parking tickets at $100 each and towed another 30 vehicles.

“I see nothing here. I’m sitting with my wife watching TV, and we just see lots of cars. Never see tow trucks,” said Antonio Goulart, a longtime Parkdale resident.

But Parkdale residents, CityNews spoke with, were frustrated, feeling the chaos of stadium events could improve if the city had a designated parking zone somewhere nearby.

“The city needs to be a little more proactive in if we’re going to have these big big concerts, in making sure that there is adequate parking,” said Gail Kesslar, a Parkdale resident.

The city encourages those going to Commonwealth Stadium for big events to ride public transit, which is free, as long as they have a ticket on them, or they can use rideshare apps and get dropped off nearby.

But for Rhodenizer, she hopes to see more action when country superstar Morgan Wallen plays two nights in September, saying she’s tired of feeling like her complaints are going unheard.

“I sometimes feel like I’m nagging people about it, but it’s like, how do you keep your neighbourhood nice if you don’t participate and do things like 311 and put in complaints about parking or garbage or whatever it is,” said Rhodenizer.