Just putting up parking fees everywhere - not great.

Honestly, this can be good too. I've seen many places where parking is "free" and the end result is that there isn't any parking available other than expensive private lots. The city is robbing itself then: It's diverting the revenue from parking into private hands, which also encourages private parking lots which are an urban blight, and making it less convenient and affordable for business customers while a handful of people squat on the free parking all-day every-day.

Everybody would be happier if the street had affordably-priced meters. Everybody except for the people who are using that street-side parking all-day every-day, but those people are basically poaching very limited and valuable land from the municipality.

I’d agree that making a structural change to remove vehicle parking and install bicycle/public transportation infrastructure sounds great.

But I read the comment above yours as saying that the mayor simply made existing free parking into paid parking. Not sure that’s doing much other than reducing the business activity in the area.

“Removing parking” is not great when you stop there. Too many places skip the rest of your sentence