As someone who has spent my entire thirteen years of Triangle residency in the suburbs and drives to downtown more often than I take the bus, I can tell you right now that I have never once had significant trouble finding parking. In fact, more often than not, I find free parking within a block or two of my destination.
Fayetteville is dead for… a lot of reasons. Hardly anyone lives on it and office occupancy is down significantly. There’s a serious lack of street activation: entire sections are tower lobbies or government buildings.
But all of that would probably be salvageable if it weren’t for one thing: the death spiral. New, interesting businesses and restaurants don’t want to move onto a street that is seen as unattractive. This makes it hard for new vacancies to be filled, and abandoned storefronts reduce the appeal of the street further. This has been happening on Fayetteville for years now, before the pandemic or the riots. It’s just not seen as a “happening” place, but you’re still going to pay the rates of a street like Glenwood or West. If you can afford that kind of rent, wouldn’t you opt for a place where you’re not surrounded by abandoned storefronts?
If I were opening a business right now, Fayetteville Street wouldn’t even make my shortlist. I only ever go there to visit Foundation or if a festival is happening. And that’s the whole problem: no one wants to be there, so why would anyone go there? It’s cyclical, and I have no idea how to even begin to address the problem.