http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/12/21/donald-shoup-plays-with-parking-fees-and-matchbox-cars/
The facts highlighted in this video are not as interesting as the fact that the video has to be made in the first place. That economic use of resources is somehow debatable in municipal politics demonstrates the absurd inefficiency of having communal ownership of municipalities. That this lesson is explained with toy cars shows that idiots are in charge.
Why not just jack up the price to $100 bucks an hour to get more available parking and a lot more trees and benches on the sidewalk?
They also fail to account for why the parking spaces are really open, perhaps because the store (mentioned in the video) is now more expensive than a competitor that has a real parking lot so the people just go there to save money.
Yeah, I’m just preaching to the choir…
Since this is New York City and there is no such thing as a store with a real parking lot, eliminating on-street parking may actually free up enough public space to create a more valuable living environment.
But of course making this type of resource-allocation decision is specific to local conditions that only private owners can know.