parking

04 Jan 2010

As of Saturday, street parking in metered spaces on Saturdays in Nashville is no longer free:

The Metro Traffic and Parking Commission voted in November to enforce parking meters in the area bordered by Broadway, Rosa Parks Boulevard, Second Avenue and James Robertson Parkway from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

The meters were previously not enforced after 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and on Saturdays and Sundays.

A lot of people are bitching about the hassle:

She said, “People come here and spend a lot of money but then you have to worry about getting back to your meter and paying the meter.”

Scott Harrison agreed.

“I think they’re going to hurt their tourist industry a little bit, because it’s just a hassle,” he said. “I think they’re going to be writing a lot of parking tickets because once you get involved, listening to the music, you don’t think about coming back out.”

I agree it’s a hassle – and it’ll be a pain for me, too – but I don’t think it’s a bad move. Street parking should be high-turnover, available parking for people that are zipping in and out, and I agree that it will draw more (certain) people downtown. In my opinion, the problem is that we still just need more regular, non-street, public parking downtown. The gateway lot on the gay street connector is great. We need more of this.