Downtown Raleigh parking free or paid? (Durham, Wilmington: closing, garages, pay)

[zitsky]

I'm happy to pay but I was curious about free parking in downtown Raleigh. I did a Google search, not sure how good it was. I found a list of "free" parking but one review said it was paid. Is there a reliable list of free parking downtown? Last night we paid $7 for about 2.5 hours at 120 S. Wilmington.

[pierretong1991]

All the state government parking lots are free after 5 PM and all day weekends: https://files.nc.gov/ncdoa/documents...ateParking.pdf

Parking in the city garages is generally free after 7 PM weekdays and all day weekends with exceptions for special events and some charge a fee for Fri/Sat nights:
https://downtownraleigh.org/getting-around/parking (click on each deck on the map for more info about their hours/fees)

Besides from that, I'm not disclosing my other free parking spots since I've noticed the competition has been starting to pick up on it

I can count on my fingers the number of times I've paid for parking in downtown Raleigh and I frequent downtown (and those instances were mostly just out of pure laziness). There's free parking as long as you know what the free parking hours are and are ok with a short walk.

[zitsky]

Next time I'll try to find a free spot. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find paid parking with an open space. I compare that with downtown Durham where it can be difficult to find parking especially when DPAC has a show or the Bulls are playing.