There are two ways to solve the parking problem on the East Side of Milwaukee near the UW-Milwaukee campus.
One solution would be to raise the parking fines to $200.00. Under-utilized park-and-rides and County Buses would see an explosion in use as students face the choice of spending a semester's worth of beer money in parking fines or taking the bus instead.
The second solution is to ask the residents in the area to "lease" the street parking spots in front of their homes from the City of Milwaukee (Shorewood could do the same). In turn, residents could rent the parking spots to students and faculty and keep the extra money, or keep the extra parking spots for themselves. The lease-holders would be responsible for the enforcement of the correct occupancy of the parking spot, just as they would if they were the owners of a private parking lot. The city could even negotiate rates for a towing service for the lease-holders, which they could opt out of if they chose.
Admittedly, initially we would see a dramatic increase in the numbers of cars towed. However, as residents, students and faculty become accustomed to the new arrangement the number of parking enforcement, towings would probably decrease below the number currently required.
Meanwhile, the city would see an increase of revenue from the parking spots that only generate revenue through the random process of parking tickets. The city would also gain by reducing the number of parking patrols needed to enforce the parking restrictions. The city would further save in the enforcement and processing of parking fines, increasing their bottom line.
Now if we could make the idiots in Story Hill let us park there for Brewer games.
