Don't You Just Love Free Parking?

Who doesn't love free? Especially when it comes to parking. And downtown Pleasant Hill is a Mecca for drivers looking to pull into a spot without pulling out their wallets.

Of course, there are always annoyances like time limits and colored curbs — green for short term parking, yellow for loading and red for just-don't-even-go-there — but all in all, it could be worse. At least it's not Walnut Creek, .

Like Pleasant Hill, Concord also offers free parking downtown. The city has two parking garages, both offering four-hour parking, and a number of two-hour spots on the streets surrounding Todos Santos Plaza.

In Pleasant Hill, the spaces behind Crescent Drive provide free three-hour parking, and of course, there's always the free parking garage opposite . Spots on the Cresent Drive strip are limited to 20-minutes or an hour, but still for free.

It seems too good to be true — and maybe it is. Could these cities be missing out on potential revenue? Does free parking hurt businesses by failing to encourage turnover? Should Pleasant Hill pull a Walnut Creek?

What do you think are the pleasures and problems of free parking in Pleasant Hill? Share your thoughts in the comments.