(Staff photo)
The City of Saint John is partnering with Uptown Saint John to make living life uptown a little easier this winter.
HotSpot Parking users will receive one hour of free on-street parking daily to help improve traffic for local businesses.
Uptown Saint John’s Executive Director Nancy Tissington says they wanted to find a way to help businesses get through the difficult months after the holidays.
“There has been quite a struggle here, and January, February, March is typically a hard time of the year,” Tissington said.
Tissington added that this year is even more difficult than usual due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funds for the program will come from the city’s ENCORE Program, established last May.
“We do believe this gift from the city, and sponsorship with us, and the fact we’ve done this several times is a really good thing to do for local businesses,” Tissington said.
But City Manager John Collin said, unfortunately, this is not a sign of things to come.
“This is not the beginning of the slippery slope to free parking in the uptown. We have to charge for parking in our uptown core in order to deliver the other services. It is a key part of our budget,” he said.
The program will run until the end of March, or until the $35,000 in funding runs out, whichever comes first. It does depend on the Saint John health zone remaining in the yellow or orange level of pandemic recovery.
