Transportation
A Small Town Decides Parking Can't Be a Bargain Anymore
Nevada City, California, used to advertise its “bargain” parking meters. Now they’re getting more expensive to protect the town against an existential threat.
A lot about Nevada City, California, could be described as quaint. The main drag, Broad Street, is a sloping corridor of Gold Rush-era shops and inns. During the holidays, horse-drawn carriages and gas lamps transform it into a Victorian Christmas fantasy. Last year, to fight wildfire risk, the vice mayor launched a fundraiser for a livestock brush control program, calling it “GoatFundMe.”
But now this popular weekend retreat in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevadas, population 3,000, has shed one of its defining throwback features. Last month, the city council voted to raise the hourly rates of parking meters from 25 cents to a full dollar.