I would like to commend Ken Stern for his April 20 editorial calling for creating Car Free Sundays downtown. As he points out it would reduce our carbon footprint and help clean the air for not only our citizens and our children but also those coming to visit our town. But I would like to take this one step further and suggest we have Car Free Weekends throughout the tourist season, Tulips to Christmas. And replace the cars with a shuttle service that would move folks between our two municipal parking lots as well as the parking lot near Maple Hall, making stops along First Street, at MoNA, the Quilt Museum and the Skagit Historical Museum, as well as other designations.

As the editorial pointed out, we need to address our environment now, not next year or next decade but now! This would be not only a step in that direction but would provide an excellent example of leadership for the rest of the Valley and beyond. Emergency services would still have a passage through town and those with physical issues would have a shuttle service to move them around.

There will be arguments against that need to be worked out, but in the end we must make changes or succumb to a toxic planet because we are unwilling to attempt solutions. Town politicians, business owners and citizens must come together and consider changes to address not only the future, but the here and now. Stern’s suggestion is an easy beginning to a much more complex situation that cannot continue to be placed on hold.

Respectfully,

Craig J. Barber, La Conner