Hannah Metzger
Audio By Carbonatix
Reader support matters more than ever
We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news.
When visitors drive to downtown Denver for concerts or sporting events, finding convenient and affordable parking can be a major hurdle.
Mayor Mike Johnston launched “Mayor’s Park $5” in June to try to make downtown more approachable. The summer pilot program promises thousands of parking spots available for just $5 through the end of September, via a city partnership with the SpotHero app.
However, since the program started, some readers have told Westword that they can’t find any $5 parking, particularly downtown workers seeking weekday eight-hour parking. Meredith in Denver asks, “Is the program working as advertised? How are users supposed to find the $5 spaces? Are they limited to certain garages, dates or times?”
For the latest edition of our Weekly WTF series, we dove into the specifics of “Mayor’s Park $5.”
Is $5 parking limited to certain times?
Yes, the discounted parking is only offered during specific times, and those times vary by day.
The city isn’t paying any money for the pilot program; the partnership with SpotHero is intended to be mutually beneficial by directing more vehicles to parking lots during periods when they are underutilized. Because of that, the reduced rate does not apply during busier traffic times, like most weekday mornings when parking lots are already packed with downtown workers.
Here are the specific times that the $5 parking is available, depending on the day of the week, according to the mayor’s office:
- Monday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($5 covers eight hours of parking), and 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. ($5 covers 10 hours)
- Tuesday: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. ($5 covers 10 hours)
- Wednesday: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. ($5 covers 10 hours)
- Thursday: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. ($5 covers 10 hours)
- Friday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($5 covers eight hours), and 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. ($5 covers 10 hours)
- Saturday: Any time ($5 covers 12 hours)
- Sunday: Any time ($5 covers 12 hours)
On Mondays and Fridays, if parking overlaps the daytime and evening time slots (for example, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), it is best to book the spot until 4 p.m., which is the end of the daytime block. Then, use the “need more time” function on the app during checkout to add additional hours. That will lock in the $5 price until 4 p.m., and typically charge a nominal fee for the extra time. For instance, at the Denver Pavilions garage, adding one hour of parking costs $0.50.
Is $5 parking limited to certain garages?
Not every downtown garage or lot is part of the pilot program. In addition, locations that offer $5 parking can vary by day. The participating garages and lots are updated in the app in real time.
More than 3,000 parking spots across 65 garages and lots are part of the program, according to SpotHero.
The pilot program is only for the downtown area around the Union Station and Central Business District neighborhoods. So the participating garages/lots are located between 14th and 20th streets, and between Wazee Street and Broadway.
Denver Mayor’s Office
How to find $5 parking?
The easiest way to find $5 parking is by using the SpotHero app’s price filter.
From the app homepage, search your desired destination, date and timeframe. It will open a map showing all available parking spaces, combining discounted and regular-price options. To locate the discounted parking, click “list” in the top right corner, then click “sort” in the bottom center. Sort by price to see all of the cheapest parking available.
Note that using the city’s “MILEHIGH5” promo code waives the app’s $0.99 service fee. So parking spots listed for $5.99 should come out to $5.
Is the program working as advertised?
Though headlines simplified the $5 downtown parking, the city did explain the limitations of the pilot program in its initial rollout. Some confusion could be attributed to vague language, such as saying the $5 parking is available “from morning to late afternoon” on Mondays and Fridays, rather than providing the specific hours.
Is the program working in terms of driving more people to cheap parking spots? We don’t know yet. The mayor’s office said it plans to release parking use data at a later date, since the program has only been running for a little over a month. But so far, “the results have been promising.”
“SpotHero confirms we saw noticeably more people park in the ‘Park $5’ lots in July 2026 than we did July 2025,” says Jon Ewing, spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
Do you have a question you want Westword to answer? Submit it here, and we may respond in our next Weekly WTF column.
