Sarah la Cour, executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District, says we’ve got trouble, right here, in River City (“Downtown parking problem can be solved,” April 14.) Trouble with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for parking!

Everyone should be able to bring two tons of automobile into the downtown area but our 3,000-plus parking spaces are insufficient. More than two-thirds are private and the public should never park in privately owned spaces.

So, says she, we (yes, you and I) do not have enough downtown public parking. I doubt this. I have never, yes never, interrupted a trip downtown because I could not find a parking place. And that includes never having to park in the underground cavern in the Boltwood Walk area.

Sarah assures us that other cities and towns have grappled with this problem, we can learn from them, and we (all of us, collectively) must do it soon.

Why must we do it soon? Because the economic strength of our (yes, yours and my) downtown is depending on it. Our (yes, yours and my) restaurants must be protected against the dreaded threat of people having to walk a couple of blocks to get to their downtown objective.

“We need to address how we, as a community, can create and manage more parking that is available during peak hours …” Yes, it is so good when we all get together and act as a community, shouldering our load to protect our (yes, yours and my) businesses.

Sarah wants the teeming throngs who already love or are ready to learn more about the fabulous, amazing, wonderful, magnificent, mind-boggling downtown district to always feel welcome and have a safe and comfortable place to park when they arrive. A comfortable place to park? Comfortable! I get out of the car. I am not looking for comfort. And as for safety, the president’s name is Trump. There is no more safety.

So what is the answer? Sarah suggests some abstractions like better management and new technology, and then gets to the heart of the matter: socialism for businesses, also known as taking from the citizenry and giving to businesses. Reverse robbing hood.

The first possible solution she suggests is free parking at certain times. Of course this does not alter the number of available parking places one bit. It simply has the town (us) subsidize the businesses by an amount equal to the lost parking fees. But if free parking is to be a solution, why don’t the businesses pay for the parking? They are the primary financial beneficiaries of the subsidy.

Sarah next gets us into the big bucks subsidy of our (yes, yours and my) businesses. A parking garage. She reminds us that Northampton built one that has been “hugely successful.” Yes, I imagine that from the viewpoint of the executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District, enormous public payment that subsidizes private business is always a huge success.

I wonder whether there might not be some alternatives. I have heard that in Brigadoon, parking in the downtown area is forbidden. People walk into town after depositing their two tons safely and comfortably on the unmetered public streets.

A variation on this might be a bus line, paid for in part by the Amherst Business Improvement District and in part by those who use the buses.

Or what about tripling the available parking spaces by eminent domain taking of the private spaces and metering them to finance payment for the spaces? If not taking them, then what about taxing them? I would especially delight in taxing Bank of America for its constant prevention of parking in its lot by patrons of the Amherst Cinema.

Finally, I suggest that if we want to enliven, support, and maintain the downtown, we should establish a Downtown Marijuana Dispensary and the Downtown Amherst Casino. These have been “hugely successful” in Colorado and Nevada.

Richard S. Bogartz is a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.