City working on Cameron Park’s reputation

Excessive drinking, struggling population gives park bad name

Among the parks that get attention in La Crosse for not-so-welcome ways, Cameron Park is near the top of the list. 

On the block around Fourth and Fifth streets and King and Cameron streets, the park has spent the summer as home to a growing farmer’s market, along with a surging population of either homeless or otherwise struggling populations. 

And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the city’s park board, which has tried to deal with issues caused often by those who also may be drinking excessively in the park

Ryan Cornett, a city council member who works downtown, is also chair of the city’s park board, said among the things they’ve tried are putting portable toilets in the park. An effort, he says, that has seen “mixed success. He says plans are also underway to put a playground in the Cameron. A move that would, effectively, making drinking illegal in the park.