Little Italy is one of my favorite places in San Diego due to the numerous restaurant options popping up over the last couple years. Turns out that other people have the same idea. As a result the parking situation after 6 can be hit-or-miss.
As of now Little Italy has three main forms of parking:
1. Street parking. You can pay $2 for up to 2 hours of parking until 6pm. After that all the spaces (including options less than 2 hours) are fair game. However these spots are highly sought, especially near India or Kettner (highest concentration of restaurants)
2. Valet parking, either partnered with the Little Italy Association ($9) or with a private company (prices vary) in association with a restaurant.
3. This parking garage. Used by the County of San Diego before 5pm, public parking after that. $10 flat fee.
While this does try to address Little Italy's parking situation, it's not really a great solution.
- Making a dinner reservation earlier in the day (5-7) can increase your chances for available street parking because it's also the time that people that work in the area end work for the day, freeing potential spots. In addition you can max out your hours without having to worry about passing the 2 hour limit.
- Compared to other parking garages servicing popular areas (Gaslamp, North Park), this is the priciest rate on a normal day. This rate still stands even on weeknights. Event parking (ie Padres games) can be a little more pricey. Hence why the garage is mostly empty. Better solution would be $1/hr on weeknights.
- Compared to the residential and business buildings comprising the city, the building that houses the structure is an eyesore. Even got nominated as an "Onion Nominee" by the San Diego Architectural Foundation due to it being so... ugly. Supposedly it got built on top of a historical site that had protected status, which just adds to my negative perception of the building.
Only pros I can see are that the garage takes credit cards and there are a few spaces reserved for electrical car charging. read more