AUSTIN, Texas — One of Austin's most popular and iconic streets is looking very different these days.
Aside from the changing store fronts, South Congress Avenue has been implementing paid parking for a few months.
New signs indicating the change can be seen up and down the street and along some side streets too.
For decades, South Congress was known for free, all back-in parking, allowing shoppers to stroll for endless hours. Now visitors have to use the Park ATX App or have a code sent to their cellphones.
The city of Austin said this new change was added in an effort to create more parking turnover and to allow more people to use the spots.
KVUE's Hannah Rucker visited South Congress and chatted with some visitors who feel the new parking conditions are a hassle and the app isn't very user-friendly.
"There's just so many decisions you have to make before you can finally walk away from your car," one shopper, Ashley Woods, said. "It's just unfortunate that now I feel like I'm paying even more out of pocket, and it feels like a money-grab to come down here"
Some of the local vendors aren't fond of the new design either.
Adam Schnitzer runs a small business called Stitches Vintage, which is part of a pop-up market across from Home Slice Pizza. He said it's hard for vendors who drive work vans that need to be parked for several hours to load merchandise to the market.
"I think the pay-to-park really affects the locals that are trying to work here. I mean, these are work vehicles for us – it's not like we're trying to park and camp out and hang out all day," Schnitzer said. "If anything, I feel like there should be special permits for people who do markets like this."
Some visitors have already received tickets for not paying, so city officials encourage shoppers to walk over to the street sign as soon as they park and plug in their vehicle information to avoid any extra fees.
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