Amy BowenThe Eau Claire City Council decided Tuesday evening to postpone action on a possible parking ban on the 300 and 400 blocks of Roosevelt Avenue until March 9.
After discussing the ordinance change and possible amendments for about an hour, the council voted 5-2 in favor of postponement. Council members Raymond Hughes, Dallas Neville, Berlye Middleton, Howard White, Bob Von Haden and David Adler voted in favor of the motion while council members Terri Stanley and Toby Biegel voted against it.
After hearing Tuesday evening’s decision, Student Senate President Adrian Klenz said he was still angry about the way the parking issue has been handled.
“For them to say we haven’t offered any solution is not accurate,” he said. “It seems they’re unwilling to entertain any other solutions than banning parking.”
In the weeks before the council reviews the parking ordinance change, Klenz said he hopes to meet with city council members and university officials to discuss other parking options. These could include higher fines and painting curbs.
During the meeting, Biegel and Stanley said if the council delayed in making a decision, it would send a bad message to Third Ward residents.
“If we postpone this, we will ratchet up the rhetoric,” Biegel said.
After an initial movement to postpone failed, confusion about the hours of the parking ban caused the council to pause.
Biegel attempted an amendment to ban parking on Roosevelt Avenue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday on the even side of the street. Other council members said they weren’t sure if this was what the residents wanted.
During discussion, Middleton read an e-mail sent to him by Mike Rindo, UW-Eau Claire executive director of communications. He said the letter detailed the rejection of a student liaison to the parking committee of the Third Ward Neighborhood Association.
“We need to be particularly suspicious of the motives of any parties involved,” Middleton said.
Klenz said in his term and former Senate president Sarah Schuh’s term, Maria Henly, who heads the parking committee, has refused to add a student liaison to the neighborhood association parking committee.
Vocabulary lesson
Roosevelt Avenue residents, residents of neighboring streets, students and university administrators added a few new terms to the parking lexicon at Monday night’s public discussion at City Hall.
Community members said “predatory parking” – drivers circling blocks or waiting for spots to open – creates a safety hazard.
“You get a lot of careless drivers down there,” said Keith Hanson, who lives on the 400 block of Roosevelt.
He said the university hasn’t provided parking, and a daytime ban on Roosevelt Avenue should be in effect.
Other residents voiced complaints about people getting blocked into their driveways, traffic flow problems and aesthetic concerns.
Rindo said letting each block set its own policy may result in a “crazy quilt” of parking restrictions confusing to residents and law enforcement. He also said a ban would hurt the symbiotic relationship between the university and community.
“We do not believe a daytime parking ban along the 300 and 400 blocks of Roosevelt is for the greater good,” he said.
Senior Emily Georgeson lives on the 100 block of Broadway Street and went to the meeting in support of the petitioning Roosevelt residents.
“I feel we pay tuition to ride busses,” she said. “If they’re there, we should use them.”
Eau Claire professor emeritus John Buchholz of the 400 block of Roosevelt Avenue signed the petition.
“I love my students, but I don’t want them to park in front of my house,” he said.
Senior Jake Wyss lives on the 1500 block of E. Madison St. and he said he takes the bus every day but wants access to parking on Roosevelt Avenue as an Eau Claire taxpayer.
Buchholz said he was waiting to “pounce” on the taxpayer argument by saying residents of each street have to pay for repairs and refurbishment.
Wyss held up a $20 bill in response to Buchholz in one of the more lighthearted moments of the night’s discussion.
