The parking lot situation in the central area of Hirosaki is changing.

On November 4th, the "AG Park Hokusei Honcho Parking Lot" was opened on the site of the Hokusei Kotsu Building in front of the Hirosaki University Hospital (Honmachi, Hirosaki City).

AG Park is a parking lot operated by Asahi Kaikan, a comprehensive leisure company in Dote-cho. "There is a shortage of parking at the hospital on a day-by-day basis, and cars waiting to be parked are lined up," said Shigetake Nakajima, "to reduce the time burden on visitors to the university hospital.

There are 41 parking spaces. The basic charge is 1 hour (100 yen), and even parking at night is up to 500 yen (18:00 to 8:00). "Because it is close to the blacksmith town and can be stopped at night for a maximum of 500 yen, it would be easy for attendees at meetings and people working at restaurants," Nakajima said.

On November 1st, "Times Hirosaki Shimodatecho" (Dotecho, Hirosaki City) opened. There are 24 cars. The basic charge is 1 hour (200 yen), and the maximum charge is 500 yen for 12 hours after parking.

The Times, which had three parking lots in the city, also opened the Morioka Sales Office (Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture) on the same day. A person in charge of the company said, "We would like to strengthen sales in the three northeastern prefectures in the future."

This year, the parking lot "Park Station" operated by Arklink (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) was expanded from 7 to 12 places, and the total number of parking lots was 184 in the city. The company is now actively expanding into the Tohoku area and is increasing the number of parking lots in Aomori Prefecture and in Aomori and Hachinohe. "Hirosaki City is a snowy area. Last year, we removed snow by ourselves and considered measures in snowy countries, but this year we want to think about efficiency improvement."

From August, some of the parking lots were converted to the Kamidate-machi shopping district affiliated parking lot, and when shopping at affiliated stores, services such as parking tickets were started. "The number of customers is increasing little by little. If it leads to the activation of the downtown area of Hirosaki, Dote," he said.