Yeah, or taking a taxi or driving drunk.

I have literally never circled for 30 minutes looking for a parking spot. In every city I have been to people people use a parking garages of one type or another. Where exactly is circling like this common?

Many NYC outer borough neighborhoods can be like that; there might not be any garages - or maybe there's only 1-2 which are always full. For example, in Queens, think of Jackson Heights, Flushing Main Street, or parts of Jamaica. I can definitely see spending 30 minutes looking for a parking spot in Jackson Heights on a busy evening if you aren't too familiar with driving in the area.

That’s quite localized in term of location and time of day.

Comparing the number of cars in NYC/DC/etc garages vs on street parking people are still mostly using company provided / reimbursed the garages down town. So, while some people in some areas may spend time circling, across all trips average circling time is minimal.

Note that I was very much not talking about downtown (Manhattan has garages). I was talking about mixed residential/commercial immigrant neighborhoods far from downtown. The places where ordinary people would go to shop for their country's authentic groceries.

Where it's $4-6 for a few hours if you can find a spot, but a flat $20+ for a parking garage after the first half hour. So, Baltimore, DC, stuff like that.