Many drivers know the challenge of trying to find parking in downtown Halifax. “Timing is everything,” says Gabriel Jones, who found a spot next to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on Friday. Once you get one, it’s like winning the lottery. “As you can see today, there’s nothing. I’ve gone around this block three times just trying to find a spot,” Jones says. But is finding a parking spot as bad as drivers think? “In this area alone with, six parkades and a new one that came on, we’re approximately around 1,680 in four city blocks,” says Sue Uteck, executive director of the Spring Garden Area Business Association. That’s more than in the downtown core, Uteck says. She believes it’s not the lack of parking that is the issue, it’s where the available spots are located. “That’s very simple, we’re Haligonians and we love to park out front. We want to be right out front, where we’re getting our retail, our goods, that’s us.” “I’ll do street parking first, it’s my first choice because it’s more proximal to where I’m going more often than not,” says Jones. “If I have to, I’ll do the parkade.” It seems like it’s the same situation across the harbour in Dartmouth. “Generally, people want to be able to park right in front of the shop they’re going to,” says Tim Rissesco, CEO of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Association. “In total, we have about 1,200 parking spaces between the lots and on street parking.” There are other parking-related complaints Rissesco hears about regularly. “You get complaints. Particularly ever since the city extended paid on-street parking to Saturday, that’s been a big complaint. For people that aren’t downtown all the time, the on-street pay stations are not that user-friendly.” But they are available. Rissesco says generally about 20 per cent of the on-street spots are empty on any given day. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
