A town nearby where my parents live recently experimented with zoning some of their parking lots for development and expanding street parking in the (small) downtown core, an area full of small shops and restaurants, mostly. The street parking had meters, which were very cheap (I think the maximum you could spend was something like $3 a day). The local residents revolted, business owners claimed their income was taking a hit, etc. At the time, I wondered how in the world this seemingly thriving, walkable little downtown was so dependent on giant free parking lots behind the main strip... it seemed crazy to me that someone would stop going to a restaurant they enjoyed because their $50 bill for dinner turned into a $51.50 night out with parking fees.

I'm not saying you're wrong to dislike street parking, its just such a foreign concept to me that someone would avoid an entire otherwise-nice area because there is plentiful parking that doesn't suit their tastes. Kind of weird to see it written out like that.