This will cause more businesses to fail which will cause less need for people to park. I wonder how many businesses will close their doors before they wake up and smell the coffee.
Here in Memphis, the only place that charges to park is downtown. Average costs is $10.00 but they raise it to $20.00 when “special” events are going on. These are not hourly rates however, but are more than I want to pay to eat or shop.
There was an upscale mall opened up less than 10 years ago called Peabody Place near the Peabody Hotel. I went there 3 times. Had a great movie theatre and they comped your parking, but for 2 hours only. Now who wants to drive across town to the mall for a movie and not look around. Cost me at least $5.00 minimum to park everytime I went.
I predicted back then the mall was doomed to die, as there were other malls to go to with FREE parking. Most people disagreed. Last year I took my wife out to special place to eat downtown and we stopped by this mall. It was down to 5 stores. This was originally 2 story mall, now reduced to 5 stores. Heard it closed a few months later for good.