Changes could be coming for how long you can park for free on Downtown Cleveland streets and how much you'll pay to park in the Muni Lot before Browns games. The changes sought by the Bibb Administration were introduced at Monday night's City Council meeting that would raise the maximum rate at the Muni Lots on event days from $30 to $70.
Another change calls for the moving of the start time for free parking at meters from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as well as the elimination of free parking at the meters on weekends.
"No more free weekends?" asked Olivia Washington of Cleveland. "Who do they think is going to come down here? That's not an incentive at all. They should be doing something to draw people downtown not to run them away."
Evan Stromberg of Cleveland is not so sure when asked if he thought this would deter people from coming downtown?
"Not really it's just a matter of you get use to it for how many years free after 6 o'clock and a lot of people come downtown to eat after six and to go pay for a ballgame now you're talking $40-$60 to park. So if they can find a spot for free that's a good thing."
Karen Skunta has been a small business owner in the Warehouse District for 25 years - she points out that a lot of the on street parking is already limited by police order on event days which are often weekends. "So maybe that isn't as big a deal but I think Monday through Thursday that we should let people park after 6 for free," she said.
She says free parking when it exists makes the coming downtown a more user friendly experience. She said she pays for the parking of her workers and Attorney Dan Karon just around the block says he sometimes pays for his clients because "you don't like visiting your lawyer to start with."
That being said as he looks at Sherwin Williams rising from what once were parking lots he added. "Maybe it's the price of progress. I don't like it but if it's what gets us something like this and new commerce and business downtown maybe it's something we all have to pitch into do. It's kind of the way the economy tends to work."
We reached out to the Bibb Administration why they thought the changes were necessary and when they would hope to see them in place but did not hear back. In Cleveland John Kosich News 5.
More popularly, the legislation allows for the city to get rid of coin parking meters and make the long-awaited move to smart parking meters.
RELATED: Cleveland to replace coin-operated parking meters with app-connected smart parking meters
