Supervisor Dimitrijevic Proposal Would Keep Lakefront Free, Open
"We should be making our public parks more accessible, not creating financial barriers."
MILWAUKEE – County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic has submitted a proposal to the County Board that will ensure parking along the Milwaukee County lakefront that is currently free remains free of charge to visitors for the foreseeable future, and prohibits the installation of new equipment to collect payment for parking along lakefront streets. Dimitrijevic’s proposal would block full implementation of a “pay-to-park” scheme that County Executive Abele included in his 2018 Milwaukee County budget proposal.
Milwaukee’s lakefront is a tremendous public asset and should be open, free and accessible to all residents, visitors and future generations for their use and enjoyment. We should be making our public parks more accessible, not creating financial barriers. This policy makes it crystal clear that our lakefront is open, free and accessible to everyone in our community, and that everyone is invited to enjoy our shared public resource for as long as they like. Adopting this proposal would send a strong signal to current and future administrations that parking meter fees at the lakefront is not the way to balance the county budget,” said Dimitrijevic.
The proposal would further establish that the moratorium on paid parking in the specified locations could only be lifted with the approval of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.
County Executive Chris Abele proposed a “pay-to-park” plan with his 2018 budget that estimated nearly $1.7 million in revenue by charging for parking at unspecified Milwaukee County Parks. Supervisors rejected pay-to-park plans in several of Abele’s previous county budget proposals.
Former County Executive Scott Walker also proposed pay-to-park schemes in multiple county budgets during his tenure but supervisors blocked those plans through budget amendments.
Blocking pay-to-park proposals through the budget process required alternative revenue increases to offset the anticipated revenue that would have come from parking fees.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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Great proposal by county supervisor. The lakefront and parks should remain accessible to all regardless of one’s ability to pay parking fees. The founders of our park system would want it this way.
The founders of our park system would also want it well funded and maintained.
If it were truly accessible to everyone there’d be a bus route along the lakefront but oh wait they refused to implement the additional wheel tax leading instead to route CUTS. People will go to hell and back for cars but screw non-drivers
The county supervisors passed the budget with the parking meters in it. Now they want to look like they care with a half-hearted attempt to blame Abele (never signed it) and not themselves (actually voted for it).
Where are they going to get the money that the parking meters were to bring in? I guess my taxes will go up, thanks Marina!
Why not bus service to the lake front during the summer? Many county/city residents whom do not drive find the lake & beaches inaccesible. Please make them open to serve all residents.