Common sense says if you want someone or something, you pull out all the moves to attract them. We say we want people downtown and we're willing to spend millions on questionable projects like Lot J, that really don't move that needle forward when considering ROI for funds spent. Yet, we seriously consider ideas to price gouge the average woman and man that we claim we want downtown consistently.
I was in downtown Ocala two weeks ago (which is more active in its heart than DT Jax is right now). As an incentive to attract customers to support their small businesses during this COVID pandemic, their on-street metered parking fees were suspended. Some type of way, we come up with a completely opposite reaction where we'll price gouge the few people still in downtown? Downtown has a lot of potential but we're seriously broken from a public policy perspective and that will continue to limit our progress.