I did the math on my own experience. When we were in college we used to spend a lot of time at Hudson's, OTR, and a few other places. Cheap wing nights on Wednesdays and Friday nights just out and about crawling bars. I'd say we averages 1-2 nights per week and spent about 50-200 dollars per person in a group of 8-10 people.
I remember when that first ticket was had for parking outside my place and spending the night rather than drinking and driving home. It really pissed one person in our group off and the rest agreed it's probably just better to avoid downtown - myself included. So that was pretty much it for spending any night entertaining downtown for us.
If 1% of the downtown population experienced similar behavioral changes and had similar activities, assuming each person spends 100 dollars a night, once a week for half of the weeks in a year, in a group of 8, that's over 2 million dollars in economic activity lost in the local economy.
Anecdotal yes, but a good example that carries over to restaurant goers, shoppers, hikers, or even just people who wanna hang out in a park or Leg grounds.
The admin has shown though it cannot see the forest from the trees on financial matters however. I wouldn't be surprised if it's universally accepted at the city that these policies and rules are required and beneficial.
