The great downtown Tacoma parking debate

City expects downtown Tacoma’s free parking to be thing of the past For the first time in decades, downtown Tacoma visitors next year might have to pay for street parking. It’s a plan that advocates say might make more parking available for customers of downtown merchants and businesses alike. The recommendation – not yet fully drafted, but destined to be completed and presented to the city in the next few weeks – comes from a 50-member downtown panel appointed by City Manager Eric Anderson. The committee has studied downtown parking since early this year. The preliminary recommendation, said committee chairman Marty Campbell, is likely to call for installation of the 21st-century version of the parking meter – electronic kiosks that spit out parking receipts that are attached to the inside of curbside windows for parking... [read full story]