By David Sher
Sometimes you have to take a chance. Do the unexpected. Be different.
Birmingham has always been risk-averse. But there comes a time when we have to say enough is enough.
Those of you who come downtown regularly may have noticed new signs indicating payment for on-street parking will soon be required 24 hours a day. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot.
The Golden Age We Left Behind
Growing up on Birmingham’s Southside, I witnessed downtown’s glory days. My father owned a retail store there, and I spent countless hours wandering bustling streets filled with families shopping at Loveman’s and Pizitz, catching movies at downtown theaters, and dining at Joy Young’s. The streets were packed, especially during Christmas season, with shoppers enjoying the decorated windows.
Back then, downtown was our city’s beating heart.
The Great Abandonment
When shopping centers sprouted in the suburbs, retail fled downtown. Birmingham’s response was puzzling. In the 1970s, we embarked on a beautification campaign that proved to be a well-intentioned disaster. Planters appeared on 2nd and 3rd Avenue North. Green spaces bloomed along 19th Street and 20th Street became “Birmingham Green.”
While aesthetically pleasing, they came at a devastating cost—parking spaces disappeared. Downtown retailers struggled as customers couldn’t find places to park. Meanwhile, the bus system began its slow decline. Much of that greenery has since been removed, but the damage was done. Parking in downtown Birmingham became a chronic headache that persists today.
Learning from Our Competition
Walking the Jemison Trail in Mountain Brook recently, a friend told me: “I never go downtown. Parking is a pain in the…”
This sentiment is Birmingham’s biggest obstacle—and our greatest opportunity.
Every time I visit Mountain Brook or Homewood, I’m reminded of what we’re up against. Mountain Brook offers three to four hours of free parking. Homewood provides free parking too. Both cities offer angle parking, creating more spaces while eliminating parallel parking anxiety.
These suburban competitors understand something fundamental: eliminating parking stress encourages people to stay longer, shop more, and return frequently.
Chattanooga gets it. They offer free electric shuttle service downtown with the first hour of parking free in their garages.
The irony? At a recent downtown parking planning meeting in Birmingham, I had to email the organizer to ask where I should park. If people attending a meeting about parking solutions can’t easily figure out where to park, how can we expect casual visitors to navigate the system?
The Economic Reality
Critics worry that free parking means lost revenue. This thinking misses the bigger picture entirely. A vibrant downtown with thriving retail generates far more tax revenue than parking meters ever could.
When people park easily and affordably, they stay downtown longer, visit multiple businesses, return more frequently, bring friends and family, and attend more events. Each behavior generates sales tax revenue and supports local jobs.
The math is simple: Would you rather collect $2 per hour from parking meters or generate hundreds of dollars in sales tax from shoppers who actually want to come downtown?
A Bold Proposal: Two Hours of Free Parking
Birmingham should implement two hours of free on-street parking throughout downtown north of the railroad tracks. There’s ample parking there, but it’s not perceived that way.
It’s not necessary to include Southside around UAB, where traffic now exceeds pre-COVID levels. But let’s give downtown north the boost it needs. While downtown activity is increasing, it hasn’t reached pre-COVID numbers.
The solution requires coordination between three entities: the City of Birmingham (on-street parking), the Birmingham Parking Authority (public parking decks), and the Birmingham Transit Authority (public transportation). Require long-term parkers like employees to use parking decks, implement free shuttles so visitors can park anywhere and ride to their destination, and strictly enforce time limits.
The revenue lost from parking fees would be offset by increased economic activity. More importantly, it would signal that Birmingham is serious about making downtown accessible again.
This Is Birmingham’s Moment
Downtown Birmingham isn’t just competing with other cities—it’s competing with its own suburbs. And the suburbs have one glaring competitive advantage: free parking.
This is our moment to show that sometimes the best way forward isn’t repeating what failed in the past. Other cities charge for parking because that’s what they’ve always done. But Birmingham has a chance to be different, to be the city that prioritizes accessibility over revenue extraction.
When you face serious competition, you must take chances. When others zig, you must zag.
Free parking isn’t just about convenience—it’s about removing barriers that keep people away from our downtown businesses, restaurants, and cultural venues. It’s about making downtown Birmingham a destination people choose rather than avoid.
The suburbs figured this out long ago. It’s time downtown caught up.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
Yes! We do need free parking. I find myself going downtown on weekends only because the meters don’t have to be fed Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t realize I had “parking anxiety,” but I do. If the meters go 24/7, I will go less, I know. And that is a shame, because Birmingham has so much to offer in culture, food and history. I like your solutions. But also, free parking on weekends!
No, Downtown Birmingham needs parking enforcement now. We have effectively free street parking, resulting in minimal turnover of spaces (bad for businesses), abuse of street space including fire hydrants and crosswalks (bad for residents and foot traffic), and nearly empty parking decks (can’t maintain them if nobody is paying).
Want downtown to thrive? Make it easy, comfortable, and safe to walk and live here. Turning the area into a massive parking lot will only kill it. People already leave because of the noise created by the streets more resembling highways. Success will only come if we build housing, not parking.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/reginaclewlow/2025/04/16/the-high-cost-of-free-parking-why-cities-must-rethink-curb-space/
An excellent source and a ‘must be read!” Think ‘pro and con’ Thank you
Roy Knight
Agreed. Our city should be built for people, not cars.
Great article. Parking apps were seen as the solution to crooks destroyng the parking meters for the cash, but parking apps are very unfriendly, especially for occasional and older visitors. No nationwide standard for parking apps exists, so out of town and suburb visitors must first download a parking app, then fill in screens of data. Downtown Birmingham has lots of cool restaurants, but the parking situation drives people away, unless they’re younger than 30. All for a dollar or so to park. Not even talking here about the unsynced traffic lights…
I disagree that Birmingham is risk averse. They built Protective Stadium, which is too small for NFL football, the Iron Bowl or even the Magic City Classic, and too large for UAB football, the Stallions, or USL soccer.
That is an example of monumental risk taking, similar to the former Birmingham Racetrack. I hope it doesn’t end up run down and unused like the racetrack did.
The greenery planted along streets and avenues in downtown Birmingham are not only aesthetically pleasing, they help the environment by cleaning up the air. That is a lot more important than lining the pockets of business owners.
A friend just posted on Facebook a photo he took of downtown Birmingham today. I think he wanted to show the contrasting architecture of the Regions Harbert skyscraper and Cathedral Church of the Advent across 20th Street. But what his photo showed was a long row of empty on-street parking spaces with meters in the middle of a business day. Candidly when we’ve attended a funeral at the Advent, a divorce hearing at the courthouse, and research at the downtown library, we’ve found parking spaces within a couple of blocks of our destinations. They weren’t free, though there didn’t seem to be any enforcement. Is the downtown parking problem pretty much concentrated around 1st, 2nd & 3rd Avenues North, with everywhere else the wide open spaces?
Greenville SC offers free parking in some of their parking garages that line Main street on weekends starting Fridays after 6pm -Sunday 12am . They have an amazing
bustling downtown and have events on Main street every weekend April through October.
Absolutely disagree. Downtown is not a suburb and should not cater to personal vehicles. If a lively downtown is what you want, then we need to provide more residences and retail businesses downtown.
Yes, Downtown needs new thinking on parking to thrive and survive. At one time, Downtown Birmingham was the largest shopping center in Alabama. There were very few shopping centers in the suburbs. Downtown had free angular parking with 2 way streets. When the interstate highways were built, suddenly the city decided to change most of the 2 ways to one ways, install parking meters. This took a lot of parking spots off the streets. Buildings started being torn town to make way for paid parking lots. The idea was to get more people out of Downtown. It worked. With less parking spaces available, and now being charged for parking, less people wanted to shop and work Downtown. The developers of shopping centers in the suburbs readily offered free parking. The lifeblood of Downtown was was drained by the idea of charging people to park Downtown. To revitalize Downtown, I suggest that we change the one way streets to 2 ways. Bring back angular parking meters, and offer 2 hour free parking. The parking decks could offer 1 hour free parking. This would greatly increase the number of spaces available, and would make people want to shop and work Downtown. Large ground level parking lots for parking workers could be developed with free shuttles running frequently so workers would not be enticed to try to park on the streets. I love Downtown Birmingham. With the right thinking, it could be a thriving center for shopping and employment.
This is absolutely wrong thinking. Why should the city give away one of its most precious assets so you, and everyone else from otm, can store their precious cars? More parking is one of the worst uses of downtown resources and leads to many drawbacks like increased sprawl, pollution, loss of revenue, and higher costs for consumers, to name a few. Furthermore, OTM residents have no right demanding anything from this city after your communities essentially robbed Birmingham for decades. We have something you want to use and you have the nerve to use it for free? Wow.. We need better public transportation rather than free storage for your cars.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about downtown is a lack of retail. My family owned a retail store in downtown for many years. We did fine until the decision (as mentioned in the column) was made to eliminate parking and replace with greenery. At the same time, public transportation was failing. There was no way for our customers to get to us. No parking; no public transportation. So how do we incentivize retailers to come downtown? Many people in suburbs would like to come downtown, but it is too much of a hassle. The increased tax revenue generated by the additional parking will more than make up the difference.