“The city’s Department of Public Works has been asked to patrol the lot to keep out illegal parkers, said Cecilia Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the city agency.” (Fixing Milwaukee Series)

Some special event visitors had a negative experience with downtown Milwaukee parking:

Jim Kirk was searching for a place to park around 7 p.m. Sunday near the Bradley Center when three men braving the evening wind and rain ushered him into a gravel lot at 324 W. Juneau Ave.

One man collected the cash – $10 – and the others used yellow wands to direct parkers into neat rows, Kirk said.

About an hour and a half later, as Kirk and his wife enjoyed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, a city parking checker ticketed dozens of vehicles parked in the lot. The city wrote at least $4,000 worth of tickets at the lot through the day.

Kirk and other concert-goers returned to their cars two hours later and found tickets ranging from $30 to $40 but no parking attendants.

The fake parking attendants didn’t have authority to rent out the lot – even though they tried hard to dress the part, donning vests and money aprons often worn by other parking attendants in town.[Link: JSONLINE]

Well that sucks for them.  Wait though, why is this problem? Why not let people park there legally?

The land is owned by Milwaukee County and not designated for public use. The city’s Department of Public Works has been asked to patrol the lot to keep out illegal parkers, said Cecilia Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the city agency.

Let me propose some ideas that Milwaukee’s Socialist-legacy bureaucrats didn’t consider for this unused land:

– Lease out the lot for special event parking for a fixed price

– Lease out the lot for special event parking for for a % of the take

– Hire some P/T workers to run the lots for the City/County for an hourly wage + % of the take.

– Let charity groups run the lot for fundraising (chosen by random lottery) on a per event basis for a % of the take.

Advantages:

– Improved downtown parking experience for visitors (i.e. the consumers coming to spend money in Milwaukee)

– Increased non-taxpayer revenue for the City/County

– Some additional income for a few City/County residents

Disadvantages:

None. Zip. Nada.