As the air cools and the holiday season rolls around, shopping in downtown State College heats up.

The State College Borough Council is prepared for the shopping heat wave by approving a courtesy parking program downtown.

The program will begin Nov. 24 and will allow free parking in the downtown garages every Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving until Jan. 1, from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. It also allows for free evening parking throughout the downtown from 6 until 9 p.m., beginning Dec. 9
until Jan. 1.

The borough has been running this program for years, according to council member Catherine Dauler, to help promote the downtown stores.

Teresa Sparacino, the director of Downtown State College Partnership, Inc., said the courtesy parking program has been very successful during the holidays and is another reason they continue to hold the program.

"We target that time because we know it is a heavy shopping period," Sparacino said. "It's to give an edge to the downtown stores and put them on the same playing field as stores that have free parking."

Sparacino said the free parking might be more convenient for people coming in from out of town and also for residents getting around town.

"One of the complaints as to why they (the residents) do not come downtown is because of the parking," Sparacino said.

Gwen Altman (junior-psychology) agreed with Sparacino.

"It is hard to find parking downtown, the parking decks are full a lot of the time and the parking spaces can be difficult to get in and out of with oncoming traffic," Altman said.

Sparacino said this year the free parking downtown will be even more important to the businesses.

"Across the nation, businesses are trying to catch-up from the tragedies in September. We need to try to bring customers to the stores downtown," Sparacino said.