Ironic all the city council bashing I see here over squabbling.....

That was actually the point I was getting to, just slowly. In your original article you say we will have to give up 'free' parking, but no such thing really exists. We're simply using the money we spent to subsidize 'free' parking to now building an arena.

So, that isn't exactly 'free'. It's metered during most of the day with limited times it isn't. That's pretty common in most larger cities.

Where is there 'free' parking in the city?

I don't think 10% unemployment is accurate.