Parking in Downtown Portland

My son Ross got a ride from Eugene to Portland yesterday evening. I agreed to come downtown to pick him up. He called at 7:05 PM to say he was getting into town and we decided to meet up in the coffee shop in Powell's. It took me a couple of minutes to get organized and out the door and about a half hour to get downtown. It's now 7:44 PM and I'm looking for a place to park. It's Friday night, this is the cafe district and there are no places to park on the street. There's lots of commercial lots with signs advertising $8 for all day. If I was down there for dinner or a movie, I would pull into one of those. They are generally four or five dollars for the evening. But I don't expect to be there for more than about 15 minutes and four dollars for 15 minutes is too much. So I drive around in ever widening circles. I eventually spot a couple of places in front of the homeless shelters/soup kitchens on Burnside Street. The first time I see these spots I drive on by. I've been running into a lot of bums lately and I don't relish the experience. But no other spots appear. I go around the block again aiming to head back to those spots and I find a single spot between two driveways into a gas station that is across the street from the row of bums. Saved. It's after 7 PM so I don't have to feed the meter. Glory hallelujah! And it's only six blocks to Powell's. I finally meet up with Ross about five after 8.

There were lots of places you could park on the street, but they were all marked with some kind of prohibition: loading zone, bus stop, ride share, valet only, yada, yada, yada. I overstayed my time in a legal spot one time and it cost me $20, so I am adverse to ignoring the prohibitions. I don't particularly like the commercial lots either. I pulled into one downtown that was advertising $6 for all day. I stayed for two hours and they charged me $8. Bah. Criminals. The other thing is there are acres of private parking lots adjacent to businesses that are closed for the evening, but with the rapacity of the tow truck companies you are risking 2 or $300 by parking there.

Update January 2017 replaced missing image.