Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
I go downtown to meet people for lunch approximately 2x per month, so the specific locations vary a bit depending on the restaurant. General CBD locations - say 9th Ave to the River and Centre Street to 8th Street SW or something like that.
Historically I parked at Eau Claire and walked wherever I was meeting from there, because:
1) It was cheap, and I like saving money
2) For a guy who works from home in a desk chair and is driving downtown for eating/socializing purposes, a few extra steps is probably a good idea.
I'd love a new easy go-to spot that I don't have to think about. Yesterday I booked a spot in an Impark in Chinatown on Spot Hero for 2.5 hours for $8, which met the price criteria although I don't prefer to pre-book (inconvenient if it ends up being full and I have to find somewhere else plus call for a refund).
The ideal for me would be centrally located downtown, cheap, and always immediately available. Obviously nothing is going to be perfect on all of those...
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Fair enough. "Downtown" is just too broad to make any particular recommendations.
In your case of just occasionally popping down for lunch, as others have said, I'd just park on the street. Generally it's $4.00-4.50/hr, whereas parking in most surface lots will be upwards of $5.00/hr, and in parkades can be upwards of $8.00/hr. If you're okay with the "go-to" part of this being flexible—which seems like the case, in that you don't really care how far you have to walk to get to your destination—street parking is the ultimate in "immediately available": just park wherever it's open and don't worry about it!
Just gotta be mindful of the signs. If you plan to stay past 3:30 pm most avenues south of 3rd have no parking from 3:30-6:00 for rush-hour; streets generally don't have such restrictions. If you're only there for lunch it's typically not an issue. Otherwise watch out you don't park in front of driveways, fire hydrants or in loading zones.