To state that maintaining your downtown core as a destination is a balancing act requiring deft thinking on the part of local politicians would be terribly obvious, but there ... I just did it.
You can't make something physically inconvenient (no place to park), and make it financially cumbersome at the same time (raising parking rates) ... or folks will simply go elsewhere. It's pretty much common sense.
I'm downtown every single workday, and have been for over 30 years, and the entire "downtown" scene has been, and is now somewhat precarious, in that local folks may be getting misled by all the condo construction taking place, and thinking that is going to increase the vibrancy of the downtown core, and fill downtown with active residents with bulging wallets.
BUT ... all one has to do is drive through the Humbolt Valley at 9:00pm on any given night, and see that 85%+ of the lights are out in the condos, they're dark, as in nobody home ... and then do that drive a few weeks in a row and realize that nobody is ever home in 85% of those condos, because 85% of the condos are simply vacation homes for two or three weeks a year, they're not potential downtown dwellers shopping, eating, and generally adding vibrancy to downtown core.
It takes some pretty creative thinking to maintain a vibrant downtown core, and I'm not sure that kind of thinking exists on the current council, at least such that they would have the foresight to understand that additional parking is desperately required in the downtown core, and that bike lanes, and wishful thinking aren't going to change that anytime soon ... if ever.
All we ever hear from this council is how even the current level of parking, cars in general, and gas and gas stations are all terrible, and how bikes are the future of Victoria ... all of which is a load of crap if I've ever heard a load of crap.