To prove his point, Oropesa, who is the city's parking manager, dumped a foot-high stack of reports and studies on the table. Sure enough, they dated back to the 1950s and early 1960s. St. Petersburg needs fewer parking meters.
Life is a cycle.
At one point, St. Petersburg had 5,000 parking meters on the streets. But the city's downtown merchants in the 1960s demanded free parking to compete with that new threat, the shopping mall. Today's merchants want turnover in downtown parking. Most of them are in favor of time limits or some sort of metered parking. There is constant pressure on the city.