Saint John — New Brunswick’s Port City is making a dedicated commitment to “improve” its local infrastructure over the next five years, promising that the city will be 30 per cent apartment buildings and 70 per cent parking lots by 2021.
“I’m sick of hearing that our economy has stagnated in Saint John,” Mayor Don Darling told The Manatee. “That simply isn’t true. Just look at Peel Plaza parking, less than a decade ago. That’s not all, either — we have plans for many other parking-related infrastructure on our hallowed lots.”
The city remains committed to building new parking lots, despite the fact that the lots tend to run deficits, and remain largely unfilled. This has put the city on the defensive, instituting new programs designed to make parking outside of these lots nearly impossible.
Darling asserts that parking isn’t the only driver of industry in the city. There are also a number of unaffordable apartment complexes cropping up seemingly every week, with private investors building both residential buildings and parking lots at a staggering rate.
“This province’s slogan is, or was, ‘Be…in this place,’” said Darling. “Saint John embodies this notion better than anywhere else. If we are able to fulfill our goal, then I believe that most of the province will, indeed, be — and park — in this place.
“They’ll just have to work, shop and socialize elsewhere.”