Free Parking to Disappear in Charlotte's CBD

[monsoon]

Apparently much of the free weekend and off hours parking in downtown Charlotte is going to disappear. Private parking vendors are talking about a windfall during arena events and plan to start charging from $5 to $25 and up for spots. In addition, police have apparently asked them to stop the free parking to put a control on the cruisers. I'm not sure if the city also plans to leave their parking meters on 24 hours/day. Ironically about the time that City Fare was opened, free parking was introduced to downtown to convince people to go there for shopping.

So is the loss of free parking good or bad for the city?

[DigitalSky]

Bad, off hours and weekends should remain free.

[swh1972]

I have no problem with charging for parking for special events - the one exception being if I am charged again to park in a garage I am already paying a monthly fee on.

By allowing for "price zones" - parking being more expensive the closer you get to events, you are effectively spreading out the traffic. People willing to walk a bit further to get to an event will do so to save $5. This also may encourage more car pooling.

[MZT]

I chose "don't know". But if pressed, I'd say bad. It just smells like the city is helping line the pockets of parking vendors, even if it's for other reasons.

There are probably suburbanites now, that dodn't even know there was any free parking-- they probably assume it always costs something to park, and that's part of why they stay away.

If there's a problem with cruisers, take action on them. Not against the common people minding their own biz, who just want to stop at Reids or the library.

[skysdalimit]

This is very bad. It's another reason why suburbanites won't go Uptown.

[atlrvr]

Patrick Cannon owns a parking company......

[nyxmike]

I think they should only charge during work hours on weekdays and during special events, otherwise it should be free - However, this could cause more people to use transit because it would be cheaper than driving.. so that could be a good thing.

By the way - how does this stop cruisers? All they do is drive up and down the street - they don't park.. If they want to stop them then they would have to set up toll plazas on every road going into the city -

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Is 7th street garage going to become paid parking? If so that's kind of unfortunate because I just used it earlier today. It does keep some 'riff-raff' out though.

[MZT]

Parking should definatley be free on Sunday. Who goes cruising then?

[jb4563]

If paying for a parking spot is the deciding spot of you going to Uptown or not, you have bigger things to worry about.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

yea, this is true. $5 added to a night is not that much to worry about.

[monsoon]

Looks as if there is a story in the local paper about it. The city is indeed considering leaving the meters on all the time. I did not realize they were testing new high tech parking meters.

City to Charge Parking 24/7

[dubone]

i agree that parking costs are nominal additions to an evening out... but i think it is the wrong message for the city to send. i guess if there are easy ways to pay, and this is just the parking meters in the most trafficked areas, then it makes sense to charge,... i just hope it doesn't become impossible to find free parking at the random times in the evenings and weekends when it isn't crowded. when you want to run a quick errand, paying for parking is a huge pain...

[f0xym0p]

Though $5 may not be a large amount of money, I would certainly choose to go somewhere outside of downtown to avoid paying to park. I live close to downtown and there are plenty of bars and restaurants near me where I can park for free. Right now there is nothing about downtown that would be worth me having to pay to park, except for a special occasion. Maybe when more retail and varied restaurants and bars are added, I would, but not as it is now.

I don't really see how having people pay to park at all times is going to help the cruising/crime/riff raff problem in downtown--it seems that it will just be a barrier for people.

[Skyybutter]

Do people that live in CC pay for monthly parking permits to park on the street? In Philly thats the system and other people pay hourly between 8am-8pm except on sundays. Ive never heard of paying to park 24/7. Do any other cities do this? I think at this point it would hurt CC.

[dubone]

this is just for metered parking. much street parking in downtown is not metered, so shouldn't be affected.... however there seems to also be a push to make permits for neighborhood parking, but i'm fairly certain that it is just a nominal fee for residents...

in the article, it mentions that the private lots are doing the same thing... does anyone know if the private decks like 7th street station are now going to charge for evening and weekend parking? if the decks remain free on non-event evening and weekens, i'm okay with the meters being 24/7.