It’s been an issue dating as nearly far back as when the first car made its way around Fountain Square Park in Bowling Green.

“It” is a lack of downtown parking, or perhaps better termed, a perceived lack of parking.

For as long as anyone can remember, there have been concerns raised, by downtown business owners and residents, about the seeming lack of sufficient parking.

Certainly, there are times when even endless loops around FSP fail to reveal a parking spot.

The good news is there is a free, enclosed parking garage with more than 800 parking spaces just a few hundred feet away. The garage, as paced out last week, is about a 2-minute walk from Fountain Square Park.

A visitor to a mall or large retail box store will often have to walk much further than that.

But while the garage is a great benefit for downtown and sees many users, many visitors to downtown Bowling Green seem reluctant to use it.

Hence the latest effort to free up more parking space downtown.

Several downtown business owners are joining  and pushing an initiative they call “Share the Square.”

Kristen Robinette, owner of the downtown business Back Down South and the person leading the effort, told the Daily News last week the initiative involves encouraging those who visit and work on the square to limit their parking times around FSP.

As for the nearby garage, “We need the best of both worlds,” Robinette said. “We need people who are willing to park in the parking garage and walk … but also, the spaces in front of all these businesses, it would be awesome if there was more of a turnover.”

Similar efforts to encourage employees of downtown businesses to park elsewhere have been tried, with seeming mixed results.

We hope the Share the Square effort does make a difference.

Meanwhile, we can be encouraged by one thing: while many cities have dead or dying downtowns, it’s heartening to see people continue to flock to downtown.

We encourage people to continue to support the small, local businesses that make up the bulk of downtown Bowling Green.

And yes, while you may find it hard to get a parking spot right on FSP, the free parking garage is just a stone’s throw away.