CityLab Daily: When Cheap Parking Loses Its Charm

Feed the meter: Raising the cost of parking can be a fraught task in any city. It would seem to be an even bigger challenge in a small town that ties its quaint identity, in part, to the bargain price of its parking meters. But last month in Nevada City, California—population 3,000—the city council voted to quadruple the hourly parking rates, from 25 cents to a full dollar. “People used to come to the city and laugh—‘Oh, it’s only 25 cents, how cute!’” says the city council member who pushed for the increase.

While there was some of the usual pushback, the council has so far staved off controversy by attaching concrete social benefits to the rate hike. For one thing, increasing the revenue from the meters will allow the town to cover the salaries of the public works employees who manage them. And on a bigger scale, the money will allow the town to address an existential threat: California’s raging wildfires. CityLab’s Laura Bliss has the story: Why a Tiny Mountain Town Quadrupled Parking Fees