I’d like to challenge our city leaders and law enforcement to stop allowing people to place chairs along the Independence Day parade route as much as a week in advance.

I live within walking distance of downtown Bothell and despite arriving early last year to secure a place to sit or stand, there were no places to be found, but there were plenty of empty chairs. We ended up sitting by some empty chairs of which the owners never showed up to occupy for the entire parade.

I also took a picture of some unoccupied chairs ten minutes before the parade much to the chagrin of a woman sitting nearby. She said the owners of the chairs are busy people, hence their late arrival. Seriously, we are all busy people. I am the single mom of three and I work full time, but if I want to take my kids to a parade or popular activity, my general strategy is to be prepared and arrive early. I’ve attended parades in other towns and this strategy has always worked well, but it doesn’t apply to the parade that takes place with in walking distance of my house.

Imagine an out-of-town visitor that decides to check out the Bothell parade only to find out that they can’t watch it from the front or second row unless they dropped off their chairs three to five days before the event? How do you think they feel about Bothell when some chairs remain unoccupied for the entire event? I think allowing this chair placement is highly exclusionary to both Bothell residents and out-of-town visitors.

Many of my Facebook friends that live in Bothell also think the chair situation is ridiculous. Let’s take back our parade and stop the chair insanity.

Cheryl Simmons, Bothell