Our meters used to be pretty steep down here ... 25¢ for 15 minutes ... well, that's now up to 25¢ for EIGHT minutes, $3.75 for two hours. Of course, that's if you can find a meter, they're being replaced with these pay-to-park boxes that you put money in and get a receipt to put on your dash ... those have a flat rate of $2.00/hour. And, the meters must be fed from 8am to 9pm seven days a week now (Sundays and Holidays used to be free).
This means, that if one was wanting to keep a car on a meter, the monthly parking would come to $780.00! Parking in our building runs something like $300/month (which was always a major factor in our not having a car), suddenly that looks like a bargain.
I guess you've gotta be "made of money" or really really need to have a car to keep one around here ... I sure hope that I can find downtown employment, because needing a car to get out to the damn suburbs would really really suck!