Consider:

Tonight, the City Council is expected to raise meter rates by 25 cents so it will cost $1 an hour to park.

But the council really wants to explore more free parking downtown.

And Mayor Rocky Anderson, who suggested the meter hike, is expected to announce a new experiment today to allow drivers to park as long as they want at meters on 300 South between State Street and 300 East on Saturdays from July 2 to Sept. 3. Now, parking is free Saturdays but only for two hours.

"We're grappling with the parking issue," Anderson's spokeswoman Deeda Seed conceded Monday.

Parking - or rather the perception of it - is seen as one of downtown's problems. Because it is free and plentiful in the suburbs, parking downtown is seen as costly or sparse.

Which is why at least one vocal retailer suggests the city scrap the proposed hike and instead add more free stalls.

"I don't think higher fees even belongs in the discussion. It will decrease the number of people who visit the city," said Tony Weller, owner of Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore and president of the Downtown Merchants Association (which hasn't taken a position on the increase). "If we could solve the parking issues, we would get more businesses downtown and maybe the [additional] sales tax would offset the loss of parking."

Donald Shoup - a UCLA urban-planning professor who has received a lot of press lately for his book The High Cost of Free Parking, which says cities should charge more for street parking - said retailers may not complain about the meter hike if the city would sink the extra $300,000 it will generate into downtown instead of dedicating it to the general fund, like Salt Lake City plans to do.

Seed said the mayor thinks that's a "good idea." But it's not one the city is pursuing.

In Pasadena, Calif., the $1 million from parking meters goes to steam-clean new sidewalks, buy street furniture and other amenities, Shoup said.

"We have to make downtown a more attractive place to be, not just a place you can park free," Shoup said.

Plus, adding free parking just means spaces won't be available, Shoup said. Indeed, Salt Lake City offers free parking after 6 p.m. and it can be difficult to find a spot.

Bob Farrington, executive director of Salt Lake City's Downtown Alliance, said meter rates are just a small piece of the larger parking puzzle. The bigger piece is actually found in the private garages and parking lots, where a majority of the stalls downtown are located. The prices at the garages - not the meters - are what discourage shoppers, according to a 2000 study commissioned by the alliance.

An alliance committee is exploring off-street parking.

The study called for the city to work with garage operators to reduce the price of parking to $1 a night.

Other cities, such as Portland, Ore., have successfully built and run their own garages that offer cheap rates. But Salt Lake City officials are hesitant to endorse that idea.

Weller isn't shy about it. He said the city must run some parking garages. "That's the only way we can shake this bad rap of having parking which is kind of confusing and a little bit too expensive for Utah taste."

hmay@sltrib.com