Downtown parking gates are up, a week ahead of schedule … kind of

Only change in parking since Feb., it’ll cost $.25 more an hour

Technically speaking, one could say the downtown La Crosse parking ramp gates are back in place today, a week ahead of schedule.

Realistically, however, it’s been delay after delay, since the gates were taken down in February.

And, during those five months, the only thing that’s changed in the three downtown La Crosse parking ramps: It’ll cost you $.25 more an hour. Oh, and the gates are made of wood now. Pine, to be exact. 

There have been so many hiccups to “Parking-Gate 2016,” it’s hard to even remember why the gates came down. 

City officials were sick of the gates being vandalized – either by people walking by and just deciding to take on a gate mono y gate-o (I’m not sure what “gate” is in Spanish) or drivers making a choice to drive through the gate – maybe frustrated the machine wouldn’t take the ticket/money or trying to sneak in behind someone who had just paid, which happened often.

So, the gates came down. 

In March, the city hired Jim Flottmeyer as the parking utility coordinator – a newly created position.

On April 17, Flottmeyer put a halt to totally free parking and put a three-hour limit in the ramps – like the two-hour street parking limit.

He also set an Aug. 1 deadline for the gates to be reinstalled.

Also in mid-April, the city handed over authority of the parking ramps to the La Crosse Police Dept.

On May 25, the city parking board decided the ticket gates were to go up as soon as possible, to make sure there was enough hourly parking as to present a “good image” to Duluth Trading Company, which was about to open. 

In other words, the city wanted to take advantage of paid parking for the rush of people who would be checking out the store.

Regardless, the gates didn’t go up. So, the new date set was July 1, Riverfest. Probably for the same reasoning with Duluth Trading – a “good image.”

But, the gates didn’t go up again, and the new date was July 11. Nope. This time, because the signs for the new rates weren’t made and the ticket machines weren’t updated reflecting new hours.

So, July 18 became the date. Not. And the reasoning: Ticket machine stuff.

And, here we are, July 25, a week ahead of that original Aug. 1 deadline set back in April.

You will now be charged $1 an hour to park – after a three-hour grace period – and up to $6 a day. If you enter the ramp after 6 p.m., parking will be free until 6 a.m. the next day. Weekends are also free now. This is all spelled out nicely in that graphic on the right, including new monthly parking prices.

The city lost around $10,000 a month by shutting down the ticket machines, which cost $450,000 when installed two years ago.