Des Moines doesn’t charge for parking in the ramps or on the streets on weekends, which was a benefit for me. But part of that is going to change.
Tonight, the Des Moines City Council will have the first of three readings on an ordinance that will make Saturday just another day of the week as far as meter enforcement is concerned. See also this Register story. The rates will not change in 2018.
There’s also an item in the council budget “to permit the sale of a portion of Southridge Mall for a multiple-family housing project” which is interesting; I presume it’s about the undeveloped space to the south. The movie theater to the southeast (and the Younkers) would preclude anything abutting the mall, I presume. The paperwork for that item mentions “sidewalk connections to Southridge Mall and DMACC” and DMACC is in the southwest corner of the mall that used to be J.C. Penney. The Sears on the east side closed in August 2016.