When Modesto Junior College students head back to class, Roger Haney spends his mornings in front of a strip mall on Campus Way, taking down license plate numbers on a yellow pad of paper.

"They come and they park all day," he said. "It just kills me."

They park, despite signs warning MJC students not to park in the private lot that Haney owns at the corner of North Ninth Street and Campus Way.

The MJC East Campus has suffered a parking crunch for years. With school back in session this week, students are again parking where they can, in lots on campus, in nearby neighborhoods and elsewhere.

Though the campus has added 200 spaces, officials say MJC is like any college: It will never find enough room for everyone. Meanwhile, students stress and homeowners sometimes endure blocked driveways.

Some of Haney's tenants -- he has a dozen in all -- say that if he did not police the lot, their customers would have no place to park at the strip mall.

"My students absolutely would not have a place to park," said Candy Brock, owner of American Business College. "They're like flies swarming out there."

Haney said he has policed the lot at the start of each semester for 10 years.

He watches to see who heads off to class, he takes down the license number and then he points out to a police assistant which cars are illegally parked.

"As a responsible landlord, I try and take care of my tenants," he said.

Across the street, the students' return to class also is a problem for a parking lot outside the Stanislaus County Women, Infants and Children program.

Carrie Villa of Modesto circled the lot for 15 minutes before she double-parked to unload her two children, ages 4 1/2 and 20 months.

"When you're late 15 minutes, they want to reschedule you," she said.

The county office is set to move in February to Paradise Road and Martin Luther King Drive, said David Jones, director of marketing and development for the county's Health Services Agency.

Haney went to school at the junior college in the 1950s. His children went there in the 1970s.

"There wasn't enough parking then. A generation later, it's even worse," he said.

There are 2,100 students on the east campus, said Alfie Johnson, director of campus safety and security.

That includes a new 200-space lot that opened last week on Coldwell Avenue, between the agricultural building and the baseball field, he said.

Last semester a few spaces were added when a lot by the agricultural building was resurfaced and restriped, he said. Officials have yet to count how many that amounted to.

"When you've got a campus of 1,700 students and almost every one drives a car, you'll never have enough spaces," Johnson said.

Maricela Valencia, who commutes from Turlock with her sister Gabby said she gets a ticket a semester.

"It's just really bad," she said.

Added Marques Lewis: "It's ridiculous. You'll be driving like 30 minutes to find a spot."

Some say it may be difficult to find parking at the start of the semester, but after three or four weeks traffic thins out.

Some students leave earlier to make it to class, and others, like Margaret Strope, walk a little farther.

Strope parks in neighborhoods across the railroad tracks along Virginia Avenue, about three-quarters of a mile from campus.

She said she wants the exercise, and, "I don't like the stress of not being able to find a parking place."

A woman living a block from campus said traffic seems a little lighter this year. Martha Helm said no one has been blocking her driveway.

"After school's on a while, it'll thin out and get more peaceful," she said.

Bill and Jean Reeves, who live on Myrtle Avenue, agreed the traffic tends to lighten up.

Most students are respectful, although a few leave their trash at the curb or drive too fast, Bill Reeves said.

Jean Reeves said she is not angry about parking on her street, but she dreaded the semester's start Monday after she and her husband had had the street to themselves for three weeks.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.