Marketing icon protests repeats La Conner history

La Conner is all about history – all the time, it often seems – perhaps because the trend here is for it to constantly repeat itself.

A case in point is the controversial promotional sign, or “marketing icon” in modern parlance, proposed for Gilkey Square and which has already undergone a major facelift to quell a groundswell of protests.

The current flap is reminiscent of one that occurred 33 years ago.

That’s when in response to tulip traffic congestion a directional sign to town at the base of Pleasant Ridge was doctored to read “Don’t Visit Historic La Conner.”

No one formally claimed responsibility for the whimsical vandalism, but it came at a time when “Lesser La Conner,” a residents’ group upset with tourist crowds, endless lines of cars and parking overflow into neighborhoods here blossomed in concert with the area’s colorful tulip fields.

The La Conner Chamber of Commerce had begun raising funds for a media campaign to promote tourism during off-season months.

“We’re not trying to turn La Conner into a shopping mall,” Peter Goldfarb, then the owner of White Swan Guest House on nearby Fir Island, insisted during an interview for the May 3, 1989 edition of the Channel Town Press. “The idea is to pool our resources into co-op advertising. It’s the best kind of advertising because we can use it when we need it most.”

The affable Goldfarb was ideally suited to soothe tensions caused when locals ventured outside to find tourist vehicles blocking their driveways or it being nigh on impossible to pick up the mail at the post office.

Goldfarb had arrived in the La Conner area via New York City and Los Angeles. He came here wanting to own an old farmhouse with acreage.

“I didn’t even know what an acre was,” he quipped. “I’m from New York.”

Goldfarb said he could feel La Conner residents’ pain during peak tourism periods. He related how his old New York neighborhood had become overrun with tourists.

“It got to the point where they were filming movies and Kojak episodes there every week,” he said. “I had tourists knocking on my door all the time.”

Goldfarb, who regularly volunteered at the Chamber visitor’s center before the COVID-19 pandemic, said in the late ‘80s that it was a challenge to boil down to a sound byte a promotional message that didn’t give residents heartburn.

“Nobody wants to hurt the people in town,” he told CTP. “We don’t want tourists to come here and park on people’s lawns. What we’d like to be able to say is ‘Don’t come on a Saturday, come on a Tuesday.’”

In 1989 he described the media campaign as a “tasteful promotion” designed to advertise La Conner as a class act home to nice homes, nice stores and nice people.

He also raised the point, now embraced decades later by those who view a “Love La Conner” or “Heart of La Conner” marketing icon as overkill.

“The thing is,” said Goldfarb, “people are going to come to La Conner whether it’s promoted or not. It’s a wonderful environment and people like it here.”