<human>:  Tell me why I can't park closer without a special tag?
<bot>: Well there's a lot to unpack here, but for a quick overview: car parking is really valuable, so cities use it to raise money, and sell the permits to people for profit. If you could get close to where you're parking for free, the city would miss out on a lot of money, and it could mean that you wouldn't be able to park as close to where you're going in the future. So the city wants to reserve this valuable resource for people who are willing to pay, in order to keep having the option of charging more in the future.