University parking plans had some folks worried, 10 years ago

In March of 2010, a parking consultant was hired by UW-L to work on a possible campus ramp.  The school only had surface parking at the time, about 2300 spaces for a college area used by 10,000 people.  A new science hall and a bigger student union were being proposed, to be built on existing parking lots, which could take away more than 300 parking stalls.  Plans for the UW-L ramp would include a space for the university police office, which was inside a small house near the football stadium.  

Franklin D. Roosevelt came to La Crosse that March.  So did Lou Grant.  Actor Ed Asner, best known as the fictional newsman Grant on TV, performed FDR in a one-man show at Viterbo.  The 80-year-old Asner also met with local reporters at UW-L, talking about his career and the political activism which he admitted had kept him from getting certain roles.  Ed Asner had just been in a hit movie, providing the voice of Carl in the animated film “Up.”  

You could always find Lou Grant on “Mary Tyler Moore” reruns in 2010.  Another “MTM” veteran, Betty White, was having a career revival, after appearing in a Snickers ad during the Super Bowl.  White would become the oldest person ever to host “Saturday Night Live” that spring, 10 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.