It’s hard to understand the thinking of a local shopping center manager who went to some effort recently to tow vehicles of customers patronizing businesses in a neighboring development.

The incident created a lot of bad will while not doing much to resolve what could be an ongoing parking problem.

The parking lots between Louisiana Purchase Shopping Center at 23rd and Louisiana streets and the neighboring strip of shops anchored by Panera Bread Co. run together with easy access between the two. With only a small curb to separate the two lots, it’s easy to see how drivers would think the two centers shared the parking spaces.

That’s not the case, but the only way drivers would know that is to read the fine print on some signs posted in the lot. Frustrated that Panera customers were continuing to park illegally in Louisiana Purchase spaces, the property manager gave a local towing company permission to stake out the lot, watch what businesses people enter and tow the cars of those going to Panera or other shops to the west. With no warning, people were returning to the lot after eating lunch to find their cars had been towed and they would have to pay a $150 fee to get them released.

Perhaps the center’s manager needed to take action to reserve parking intended for his tenants, but wouldn’t it have accomplished the same goal and been far better for public relations to simply station someone in the parking lot to call drivers’ attention to the parking restrictions? They then could have moved their cars and known where they could park the next time they came to the center. If they refused to move their cars, then towing might have been warranted.

As it was, the towing spree created bad feelings not only toward Panera but toward the businesses in the Louisiana Purchase center that they also might have visited. The towing also did nothing to warn people who came to the businesses the next day or next week. Without better signage, they would have been equally vulnerable to similar treatment.

Perhaps there’s more to this story, but it seems there were far better ways to resolve this problem without alienating neighboring businesses and potential customers of both centers.