Being California in June, the weather was hot. Of course, it is a “dry heat”, as they love to say, but hot is hot. So, when we found a tree under which to park, I was delighted.

And then it struck me; wait, a tree in the middle of a parking lot! Then I noticed there was a pattern … one tree for about every 14 or so cars. Nice! Ruthie informed me this was a mandate in Fresno; great idea and one that would be a wonderful asset to Chesterton.

It strikes me that if we would adopt such a mandate locally, we would benefit in many ways. We would drastically improve the esthetics of ugly parking lots. Imagine the old Jewel Parking lot filled with tree islands. It would be not nearly as ugly as now. Further, the trees would serve to cleanse some of our air, and as we become more urbanized in Chesterton, clean air will be more of a problem than it is now, with mill-drift, etc.

So how about it, Town Officials? Isn’t this an idea worth considering?

I certainly hope so.

Sincerely,