A new initiative designed to help improve traffic for uptown Saint John businesses is set to begin Monday, Feb. 1.
Uptown Saint John has partnered with the city to offer one hour of free on-street parking daily to HotSpot Parking users.
During last week’s council meeting, executive director Nancy Tissington said 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 told council on Jan. 25.
Tissington said this year is even more difficult than usual due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program will run until the end of March, or until the $35,000 in funding from the city runs out, whichever comes first.
It will only take place when the Saint John health region is in the orange or yellow level of pandemic recovery.
With files from Ben Burnett.