The program, Park DTO, offers free parking at all metered and non-metered parking spaces downtown through the city’s ParkMobile application. Once you’ve downloaded the application, enter “ParkDTO” to claim your two hours of free parking at your preferred parking space.
If you’re technologically challenged, or don’t have an smartphone, well, sorry.
The Park DTO program was first launched as a temporary incentive during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage visitation downtown, according to the Orlando Business Journal. It was relaunched in 2023, and the city is adding another incentive to use the program through its extension this next year.
Visitors and residents who participate in the parking program will now be able to use the “ParkDTO” code up to 12 times (up from four). According to the city, the goal is to make it easier to “access the heart of the city” and to support the success of downtown restaurants, entertainment venues, and shopping.
The downtown area’s many bars and nightclubs are not specifically mentioned in the city’s press release, which comes at a time of rising tension between the city’s nightlife scene, city officials, and the Orlando Police Department.
OPD released findings of an extensive sting operation last month, accusing nearly two dozen nightclubs and other establishments of violating city rules on selling alcohol after midnight. Police said they also managed to buy illicit drugs, ranging from cocaine to fentanyl and other illicit narcotics, at 17 downtown clubs.
Some owners of the accused have called foul and said they felt “blindsided” by the police department’s findings.
“They’re attacking the nightlife in downtown, period,” Mateo “Matty Bullitt” Terrasi, owner of Bullitt Bar, told Spectrum News 13. “They have an agenda and they’re putting their foot on our necks.”
Orlando police claimed they managed to buy illicit drugs inside Bullit’s bar from one of his employees — but Terrasi said the employee named by police has never worked for him. He told Spectrum News that OPD didn’t even bother to tell him first of the violations, rather that he first heard news of the alleged illegal activity at his bar through media reports.
As Orlando Weekly previously reported, five bars downtown — Ember, Chillers, Irish Shannon’s, High Tide and Cahoots — closed their doors shortly after. None of the five were named in OPD’s Operation Nightcap report, but city meeting documents show that all five were facing hearings over alleged violations of the city’s After Midnight Sales permit rule.
The rule, first implemented in 2023, requires businesses to apply for a permit to sell alcohol downtown after midnight, and includes other security requirements for higher-capacity clubs, such as extra police protection (at a cost to club owners, not the city).
Still, the city boasts in its press release on the ParkDTO extension that Orlando’s downtown entertainment area welcomed 40 new business openings last year, and says it’s eager to support the new tenants through, in part, making it easier for visitors to park so they can walk around and spend money.
The city also recently announced the addition of new paid parking spaces, and last year launched a taxpayer-funded line of Uber-adjacent electric micro-shuttles that offer transportation for riders specifically downtown.
Rides through the micro-shuttle program, dubbed RideDTO, are $1 each, and also require the use of a mobile app.
This post has been updated to clarify that the correct mobile app to take advantage of this free parking deal is ParkMobile.
Related
Orlando announces new paid parking spaces downtown
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | or sign up for our RSS Feed
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2025.