Portsmouth Announces 2016 Free Holiday Parking Days

Holiday shoppers and general visitors to downtown Portsmouth can enjoy free holiday parking again this year.

Free Holiday Parking will be Saturday, Dec. 19 to Sunday, Dec. 27.

A little bit of a change from last year. There were three weeks of free parking in 2015 compared to the nine days this year. That's a reduction of twelve days.

According to SeacoastOnline, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of the reduction on Monday night, citing "recession" as the major reason. The city loses $154,000 in revenue when it offers free parking for three weeks, and will likely only see a loss of around $70,000 with nine days.

I think it's a nice treat to have even one day of free parking. Although it seems drastic to drop free parking by twelve days in one year I still think there's quite a bit to appreciate with this year's schedule.