CLEVELAND — Starting in January, the City of Cleveland will be making some changes to Downtown parking rates and hours.
As the city has been working to update its on-street parking system, parking will cost a bit more in the new year.
The new standard base rate for parking will be $1.50 per hour, while extended parking up to four hours will be as follows:
- First and second hours: $1.50 per hour
- Third hour: $3
- Fourth hour: $4.50
- Full four-hour parking session: $10.50
The city said special event zones around stadiums will price parking appropriately and ensure greater availability during events.
In addition to the price changes, the city has also updated enforcement hours for Downtown and Ohio City.
For Ohio City paid parking, enforcement hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Downtown will be enforced from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
"The primary goals of the changes that we're going to be implementing here in early 2026 is the opportunity to create more accessible and available parking when and where folks need it," Senior Advisor to the Mayor, Lucas Reeve, said. "This is about turnover and wanting to have spaces predictably available when folks are coming down to visit."
The city says free weekend parking has been a problem because people sometimes park on Friday night and don’t move their cars for the entire weekend.
"We've heard a lot from businesses, whether it's in downtown or other parts of the city, including Ohio city that quite often there are cars that are parked for hours or days at a time right on their front doorstep," Reeve said.
Some people who visit downtown often were upset with the new changes.
"I think it'll deter most people because so much of the business is from people commuting from out of the area to down here, and I feel like that will impact businesses," Clevelander, Connor Murray, said.
The city is encouraging people who want to spend more than four hours downtown to use the garages. They also plan to increase the number of employees who will help ticket those who aren't following the rules.
