In the midst of divisions over parking, council member urges better dialogue with schools

La Crosse’s city hall and colleges at odds again?

The new dust up over paid, on-street parking is just the latest example of the city and the colleges not seeing eye to eye on issues.

City council member David Marshall blames a lack of communication between the city and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Western Technical College — where the paid parking would be implemented. He largely points a finger at the colleges.

“We have three different institutions of higher learning in this city that do not engage with the city on issues that greatly affect them,” Marshall said, including Viterbo University. “They are the ones who have failed, actually, to reach out to us.”

Marshall says, more often, it’s the schools that covet their sovereign government status and don’t bother communicating with the city.

“That sovereignty has given them that sense that we’re going to deal with our issues and the city is going to deal with theirs, and we will work is silos,” he said.

The city’s new plan to institute its parking plan as a pilot program around UW-L and WTC apparently was never communicated to leadership at the schools ahead of time.

Marshall has proposed a standing committee to help work through conflicts with the city and the three schools when those conflicts come up.