Editorial

Free parking would be the perfect holiday gift

Posted 11/23/22

Many businesses in Downtown Newburgh will welcome the holiday shopping season this week by participating in Small Business Saturday. That’s when consumers are encouraged to support local …

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Editorial

Free parking would be the perfect holiday gift

Posted

Many businesses in Downtown Newburgh will welcome the holiday shopping season this week by participating in Small Business Saturday. That’s when consumers are encouraged to support local businesses and spend their holiday shopping dollars close to home.

Those of us of a certain age remember when downtown Newburgh was a truly magical place during the holiday season. Twinkling lights were strung across Broadway and Water Street, storefronts were decorated and shoppers filled the sidewalks. A child could sit on Santa’s lap at Schoonmaker’s on Water Street and parents could do all of their shopping there or at any number of stores: Woolworth, M.H. Fishman, Sears, Seaman’s Photo HiFi, Pearl’s Appliances, Conovers and Galindo & Mills Jewelers just to name a few. Need to take a break from shopping? Take in a move at the Ritz or the Broadway Theatre.

To help encourage citizens to fill its stores, Newburgh officials did something truly remarkable: they covered all of the parking meters along Broadway and the Front Street parking lot with plastic shopping bags and offered free parking for the entire month of December.

What better way to show support for local business than to tell spenders to come to Newburgh, visit our stores, and take as long as you like? No need to run out and feed the meters.

The meters are now gone. They were recently replaced by an electronic parking system that’s supposed to be more reliable and allow visitors to download an app and pay via credit card. No need to save your quarters to feed the meters.

The paid parking has been a bone of contention for the downtown business owners who often have more than their share of challenges in post-pandemic, 21st century Newburgh.

The city manager’s office announced on Monday that it would suspend paid parking for the upcoming Shop Small Weekend (November 26 and 27). Perhaps they’d consider extending that generosity through December 25. It just might make the holiday season a little brighter for some small business owners who are really counting on a good December to carry them through the long winter ahead.

Shop local and Happy Holidays.