"Stroll the piers. Gawk at a 1000-footer. Deconstruct the meaning in public art. It's your birthright, Duluth."

The little things in life, right?

Damn, guess I got lucky when I went to see Elton John, I parked on Canal Park Ave all evening. Thanks for the heads up, Andrew!

Luuuuundgrrrreeeeennnn!

I think the electronic parking box system is a sham designed to fail.

By putting meters in Canal Park, aren't we basically making parking the same as downtown? I'm not understanding why this is a big deal...

It's not the same. They use an electronic parking meter box that requires you to find it, put money in, and then put the receipt on your dash. A little more cumbersome than plugging a meter.

If there weren't meters downtown, every parking space would be full, taken by the people who work there.

Disgruntled parking rant, by former owner of the 2nd most ticketed car in the US (statistically):

So these 'electronic' meters that Adam speaks of - another example of bureaucracy designed for profit, under the guise of convenience. Talk about one step forward, three steps back.

I spent some time in Auckland, New Zealand in 2006, and the majority of their meters were designed for us by the business worker or shopper, with ease of servicing and convenience in mind - basically the mantra was the more welcome and comfortable people felt in the business district, the more money would be spent, and both public and private sectors would flourish alike.

Anywho, they had meters that you could swipe your credit card or text a code from the meter to your phone, and the meter would give you a text warning when time was running low, with the option of re-upping the meter via your phone. Profits were obviously rolling in (from legit meter times), and frowns were on the out (obviously, there was a very low occurrence of ticketing, and in turn, little money spent on meter maids).  People were happy, parking was not an issue, public services were trimmed to a necessary minimum and businesses flourished. 

Turn the clock back a few centuries to the Duluth model, and your taking steps backward in convenience, aggravating parking users, stirring up conversations like this and repelling smiles and income.  Personally, after paying out $335 in one year to some asshat mob collector in Trenton, NJ, do I ever want to park at a meter again Duluth? No.  End of story..

I do agree that the whole "park your car, walk to a kiosk, pre-pay, then walk back to your car to put the ticket on the windshield" is a pile of crap. I have no problem plugging a meter in canal park, but I've never used one of those stupid kiosks, even when I do park in the kiosk zone.

"If there weren't meters downtown, every parking space would be full, taken by the people who work there.

Bad Cat!"

This assumes 1> The employees have no interest in people accessing the business 2> the owners have no control over the employees parking 3> there is no other method of control 4> was this the case in Canal Park before the meters?

Two hour limit free parking would solve that problem, so would employees/owners caring about where they work, which they do. So no.

"The stores in Hermantown and the mall also have acres of wetland they paved over to create said parking, which leads to all manner of ecological nastiness. Cheap land = abused land.

edgeways"

Not the point. The point is that in downtown Duluth, which has already been paved over 100 years ago, the competition has lots of parking where some deluded government is going around trying to give customers tickets which balloon into $60 and license suspensions if you don't pay them.

The lots are not very convenient. Look at the Tech village one - it faces some forlorn section of 1st street? Great. Then there's that other one where bricks fall on your car.

That useless park by Allette would make a good parking garage. Or that useless commercial space across from the Tech Village. I'm sure Duluth could do *something*, and instead, they extended the harmful meters to what used to be the best shopping area.

City of Duluth is pretty dense, not surprising since so are it's citizens. I won't miss you at all, Duluth.

Funny - so many comments making out as if the meters have not been in Canal Park for YEARS (intentional shout).

They have been - only enforced during tourist season - same for the lots (though more pay lots now than in the past with the influx of hotels and other businesses). It does ensure turnover for those spaces.

Suggest if you have issues with expired meters and the subsequent tickets that you set an alarm to remind yourself to head out and a) move your car or b) add another quarter. Take some responsibility for your actions rather than acting as if it is someone else's fault on this one.

I do miss the days when you could use any manner of silver coin in the meters though. 

Trust me that employers have little control over where their employees park (unless they offer them subsidized parking). Americans are lazy and will strive to walk the least distance possible to get to work, shopping, etc. I know I have been guilty of cruising the block or parking lot for a close spot a time or two, especially when I had small children.

There are times I wish the City had a "resident" parking permit for the lots near the Lakewalk, etc allowing for a few hours free parking. After all, our tax dollars (as well as many other folk's) have gone into paying for those amenities that we have a hard time accessing come tourist season.

What does a spot in a garage in NYC run you a month? How about Seattle?

Until we hit that level of scarcity of space, bitching about parking (and what it costs) is totally moot.

Zra's got a point...I was just in SF, and parking is **ridiculous** there. Even the Twin Cities has ridiculous parking costs, I parked in downtown St Paul and it was like 25 cents every 10 minutes on the meter. Jesus Christ, I could not even believe it.

Missoula is notorious for giving out polite little notes to folks letting them know that they've parked wrong.