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Don't You Just Love Free Parking?

Do you appreciate the free parking in downtown Pleasant Hill? Or do you see it as wasted revenue for the city? Either way — gush or gripe here. Let's talk parking.

Who doesn't love free? Especially when it comes to parking. And downtown Pleasant Hill is a Mecca for drivers looking to pull into a spot without pulling out their wallets.

Of course, there are always annoyances like time limits and colored curbs — green for short term parking, yellow for loading and red for just-don't-even-go-there — but all in all, it could be worse. At least it's not Walnut Creek, .

Like Pleasant Hill, Concord also offers free parking downtown. The city has two parking garages, both offering four-hour parking, and a number of two-hour spots on the streets surrounding Todos Santos Plaza.

In Pleasant Hill, the spaces behind Crescent Drive provide free three-hour parking, and of course, there's always the free parking garage opposite . Spots on the Cresent Drive strip are limited to 20-minutes or an hour, but still for free.

It seems too good to be true — and maybe it is. Could these cities be missing out on potential revenue? Does free parking hurt businesses by failing to encourage turnover? Should Pleasant Hill pull a Walnut Creek?

What do you think are the pleasures and problems of free parking in Pleasant Hill? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Annette August 31, 2012 at 11:17 am
Our household values free parking. We don't go in to Walnut Creek for anything we can do or buy in Pleasant Hill...or even Concord. I think the businesses would be hurt by the addition of parking fees. It adds to the cost of anything if we have to pay for parking while we buy it. Anything that hurts the businesses is not good for the City, who will lose revenues if a business has to close. As it is, people are buying on the internet a lot more these days to avoid taxes. Adding a parking fee, as well as the trouble of having to carry change to pay for it, to the time and cost of gas already inherent in making an in-person drives more people to the internet. Free parking encourages me to spend time in downtown Pleasant Hill, and I believe it is likewise for others as well.
Emily Henry (Editor) August 31, 2012 at 03:02 pm
Thanks for your input, Annette. I have to say that I agree. On the few occasions I've tried to park in Walnut Creek, it hasn't been worth the effort. Comparatively, it's always a pleasure to pull up into a free spot in Pleasant Hill or use the garage. It makes me want to spend more time downtown.

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