We are downtown now (and have been a year), so we guess this is news to us. Yesterday’s front paper headlines in the State Journal-Register read “City To Replace Outdated Meters,” meaning our parking meters, including the ones directly outside of our store, will soon be replaced. The meters themselves are around 25 years old, which means they are surpassing their typical life expectancy. What exactly they are going to be replaced with and when is not yet clear. The city will be holding an open house meeting this Thursday (February 20th) open to the public to discuss the future of the meters, the possibility of two-way streets replacing one-way streets downtown, and other upgrades. From the article:

A solution is coming — Mayor Jim Langfelder has set aside about $170,000 in his proposed budget for new meters, which will be among the topics discussed at an open house the city is hosting on Thursday. What exactly that solution looks like is less clear.

But what is clear is that fixing metered parking is just one piece to the larger downtown parking puzzle. While traffic studies routinely show an excess of spaces available on-street, in parking lots and in parking ramps, downtown business owners say there is still a disconnect between that reality and the perception that downtown parking is difficult.

You can check out the full article online right here. We would also like to point out that parking meters are enforced outside of our store from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on week days – any time outside of that (and all day on weekends) parking is free.