For downtown Gainesville goers, paid parking has been lifted the past few weeks to prepare and allow citizens to familiarize themselves with new raised parking rates, which went into effect Sept. 16.
The new rates are $0.50 per hour with a two-hour time limit for on-street parking spaces in the center of downtown, with $0.25 per hour or free rates with no time limit outside the “downtown core.” The changes have sparked controversy among business owners and citizens alike.
The new hours of paid parking are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Anything outside this time limit is free.
The previous paid parking times were 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday in downtown.
A week after the enforcement has gone into place, downtown Gainesville residents say they’re struggling to come to terms with the new rates. The city commission won’t know if the rates are successful until 2025.
“I can’t tell you that it’s going well or not well for probably six or eight months,” Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said.
Ward said he’s talked to mayors from multiple cities in preparation for the implementation of new rates, including Boston and Pensacola, and discussed citizen reactions — which have mostly been negative despite the differing locations, he said.
“The psychology of parking is something almost everybody deals with, so it’s a commonality,” Ward said. “When there’s a change to that commonality, everybody can understand each other, and it’s a common enemy, sort of.”
The revenue generated from the meters will go toward paying parking enforcers and infrastructure in the downtown area itself, Ward said. The city previously went by an “honor system,” hoping that in a free, two-hour spot, individuals would leave after the two hours.
Now, there will be designated workers to enforce the two-hour time slots and hand out tickets.
However, the change in the monetary rates isn’t the sole grievance citizens have. For 29-year-old Adam Porambo, the $0.50 charged isn’t the problem — it’s the two-hour time limit imposed.
Two hours simply isn’t enough time to explore all that downtown Gainesville has to offer, he said.
“If someone’s gonna be coming here to go to Dragonfly for dinner, and then if they want to go get ice cream after, they want to get coffee before, they now have a crunch time,” Porambo said.
As a business manager of The Hyppo Gainesville, Porambo said the city never talked to him or the business neighboring him about the changes to parking, despite saying the new rates would benefit business owners.
“They didn’t talk to our business, and I know they didn’t talk to Wyatt’s because the owner of Wyatt’s has been pretty vocal about not wanting this stuff,” he said.
Porambo said the city of St. Petersburg recently did the same, and as a result, a business he manages there saw the same negative effects he expects to soon come to fruition in Gainesville.
“They [St. Petersburg] said it was going to promote more traffic and more flow, but it doesn’t,” he said. “I see it reduced. I saw a reduction in our sales after they did the meter parking.”
Josh Diaz, 28, works at Primo Hoagies in downtown Gainesville and said he’s already noticed what Porambo is fearful of. The new parking rules have slowed down business for walk-ins and new customers, he said.
For a quick, 15-minute run-in to his store, Diaz said customers are getting ticketed when they don’t pay the meter.
“Nowadays, even the customer is just like, ‘Where should I park?’ and I’m just like, ‘I honestly have no idea at this point, because everything’s have-to-pay,’” Diaz said.
As a result of the new times, dinner sales have been especially slow, he said. He has heard the same from other downtown restaurant managers.
While citizens grapple with the change, Ward acknowledged the plan may need adjustments down the line.
“I’m not saying that what we’re doing is absolutely perfect,” he said. “I am saying that we need to get used to it, to know how good or bad it is.”
Ward urged citizens to keep an open mind because Gainesville is modest with prices, even with the new restrictions, he said.
“Our parking fees are among the cheapest anywhere,” Ward said. “We already don’t charge for Saturday and Sunday parking — we’re one of the least restrictive about it.”
Contact Kairi Lowery at klowery@alligator.org. Follow her on X @kairiloweryy.
Kairi Lowery is a second-year journalism major and a metro general assignment reporter for The Alligator. When she's not writing you can find her lounging on the beach with a book or collecting vinyls.
