Will Rogers once said "the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces".
While he meant it as a metaphor, it could also describe the parking spots in downtown Youngstown.

"We're actually at a net positive in terms of total parking spaces," said one Youngstown official at a meeting of the Committee on Parking Wednesday.

The committee is working to come up with more of them.
The city lost revenue from not issuing parking tickets last year.

"Once we figure out a new policy or a new procedure of how we're going to oversee parking, we should see those numbers climb again," said Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

Public Works Director Chuch Shasho says the city will be going out for bids for paid parking services and enforcement soon, and hopes to have bids back by Memorial Day. While the old coin meters are gone and won't be coming back, the cost to park downtown will certainly be more than $0.25 per hour.

The city says businesses have complained about there not being adequate parking downtown. First Ward Councilman Julius Oliver says there is plenty of parking, it just might not be right in front of those businesses.

"The concerns were also that people were parking in the parking spaces that were available far too long," Oliver said. "And we've come to see that most of those people that are doing that either live downtown or work downtown."

Which is something Oliver says those business owners will have to deal with.
Meanwhile, the city has legislation to address parking on the docket for March, and is looking to work with private lots throughout downtown to address the situation.

"Nobody wants to pay to park," said Oliver. "But we can't be the only city in the country that doesn't have parking meters or some type of set system."

A system that hopefully will provide more parking spots, and tempt more people to use them.