Park leaders and advocates once again gathered in Balboa Park on Saturday to call for an end to the city of San Diego’s paid parking program at Balboa Park. The “Repeal the Fees” campaign gathered signatures from attendees in hopes of making that call to action a reality come the midterm elect ions in November. “It’s dire,” said Diana Hyatt, the President on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Model Railroad museum. Since paid parking was officially implemented in January, the museum has laid off three employees to cut costs. In addition, the museum changed the days of operation from six, down to five days a week. “We budgeted a 20% shortfall but apparently we didn’t predict enough,” said Hyatt. The San Diego Model Railroad’s attendance, according to Hyatt, has gone down at least 32% across the board in the first three months of the year compared to 2025. She hopes the petition will be the turning point before more damage can be done, Hyatt said. “I hope it’ll be enough before most of us are cutting our losses,” said Hyatt. “These museums are on the brink of going out of business,” she added. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria scaled back paid parking earlier this year, making it free to park for city residents in select lots around Balboa Park. Despite the concession, he maintains that the paid parking program is here to stay. There are two avenues the petition is pursuing. If the petition gathers 24,000 signatures, then the issue of paid parking at Balboa Park will be placed on the City Council’s agenda for a hearing. To get the initiative on the November ballot, the petition would need 80,000 signatures. Only City of San Diego residents can sign the petition, so it would appear only on their ballots. “We’re all in this together and hopefully we can get these repealed,” said Michael Tuke, a resident of Golden Hill who signed the petition on Saturday. The “Repeal the Fees” campaign is spearheaded by former Coronado mayor, Richard Bailey. Bailey is currently running for San Diego City Council to represent District 2 after he moved to Point Loma last year. Over the next month, people with the campaign will be collecting signatures next to parking kiosks installed around Balboa Park. The deadline to collect signatures is the first week of July for the initiative to qualify for the November ballot. ...read more read less