I take a both/and approach, but your example of Center City is exactly what I'm talking about. In the areas where there's actual enforcement, people behave better and it's overall more pleasant to walk/bike/exist. Sadly, because of all the baggage that goes with them, that area is almost entirely patrolled by the PPA, who are monumentally better at enforcing parking violations than PPD. If we could get a comprehensive enforcement division as efficient as the PPA that wasn't up to its eyeballs in political corruption, we'd really have something.

Instead, we have a city where the powers that be have decided you can just park wherever you want as long as you remove your tag and cover your VIN first.