To the editor:

Park and relax.

Have the city take over the vast Tanger parking lot. Install meters. The kind that let you swipe a card in and out would be nice. Then run a free shuttle in a loop with stops at the library high-rise lot, cut over to Mass., and then with stops south, around by the Courthouse, then down New Hampshire to the city lot, cutting back to Mass. with stops north, and back to Tanger.

Assured parking. No more than a half-block walk to your downtown destination. Depending on the number of buses in the loop, not much more time waiting than it takes to drive around the block a few times while you try to get the top off the antacid bottle with your teeth.

The only problem. No one wants to put their money where their whining is. Maybe if the city put in a small yoga studio with a basketball goal at the other end at the bus stops in each parking lot so people could recreate while they waited for the shuttle. I wonder if anyone makes dispensers that let you swipe your card as a deposit and get a mat or a basketball? Return and get your digital deposit back. The whole thing shouldn’t cost a penny more than the $25 million rec center in west Lawrence. Of course the annual maintenance charges could skyrocket. Still it might encourage people from out of town to spend money downtown.

Oh that’s right. They’ll all be parking their cars in East Lecompton.