The mayor of Skopje's Centar municipality, Goran Gerasimovski, has announced the next step in his parking plan: the first vehicle per household stays free, the second will be charged, and the third is a luxury. "It is unacceptable for one apartment to have three or four cars and then for us to ask why there is no parking," Gerasimovski said on Sitel TV.

The numbers behind the decision are stark. 15,800 parking permits have been issued for the municipality - while only 6,100 parking spots actually exist. That means, statistically, for every real parking space there are nearly three permits. The result: single-car households cannot find a spot in front of their building, while apartments with three or four registered vehicles eat up multiple spots.

The argument for the new model is not "to save money." It is the redistribution of a finite resource. With the growing number of vehicles in Skopje (and households running 2-3 cars per apartment), the "one fee, one permit, one space" system is financially and physically unsustainable. The fix: a fee for the second car, a luxury rate for the third, and probably a ban for the fourth.

Will this be accepted? Not easily. Families used to parking in front of their block for free over the past 15 years will now have to either sell a car or pay considerably more. The reform will certainly draw complaints from the households it touches. But Gerasimovski, as he explains, built the model after 18 months of analysis and public consultations. Translation: he is committed to going through with it. Who pays the political price is another question.