When Andrew Schaer heard about the city's plan to replace free parking downtown with $1-an-hour meters, he thought of his wife and children.
"I was scared for the well-being of my business, and as a direct result, the well-being of my family," said Schaer, 34-year-old owner of Hear Again Music & Movies on Southeast First Street.
The Gainesville City Commission alleviated his and other business owners' fears Thursday when commissioners struck down the plan and sent it back to the drawing board.
At the meeting, business owners spoke up to save their stores. They presented the commission with a petition against the meters with about 1,100 signatures collected over the summer.
Schaer said the parking meters would've failed like they did in Sarasota. In spring, Sarasota commissioners decided to install parking meters by stores. Three months later, the meters were discontinued and covered with plastic bags after business owners complained that they were driving away customers.
Nava Ottenberg, who owns Persona Vintage Clothing & Costumes on Southeast Second Place in Gainesville, spent two hours after work one night going from door to door to collect names of business owners who would rally against the meters.
They didn't need persuading. Ottenberg showed 37 owners the petition and all of them signed without hesitation, she said.
She's been in business for 32 years. She said she knows what can build or kill a business.
"We are the spine of the downtown," she said. "And it's like you hit a nerve and you paralyze the whole downtown."
Residents and students, she said, were not going to pay to park. They just wouldn't come downtown.
Leslie Shaw, a 21-year-old Gainesville resident, parked her car in a free space in front of Ottenberg's store Tuesday afternoon to pop in Starbucks to use its Wi-Fi.
She said she wouldn't come downtown if she had to spend her coffee money on parking.
The proposal was sent back to a City Commission committee for evaluation at Thursday's meeting. That means it may come back again.
Schaer said downtown store owners are working with city staff to come up with a solution that helps both parties. He's traded emails with Public Works Director Teresa Scott.
"We're all good, hardworking people down here who want the same thing, and that's a vibrant downtown," he said.
