La Crosse downtown Christmas decorations in limbo

Who knew La Crosse’s Mayor was such a Scrooge? Turns out there is a tug-of-war over the Christmas decorations that adorn downtown La Crosse each holiday season. Unlike in most cities, La Crosse’s decorations are not paid for by the city. They are provided by downtown merchants and the City Vision Foundation. In year’s past, the city did provide the manpower to hang the lighted wreaths and candy canes. But no more. Mayor Kabat said no to this year’s installation of decorations. It is not clear if he is trying to save money, but if so there are better places to cut city spending. With the city unwilling to do the job, volunteers at City Vision agreed to take up the task. Volunteers, with no city money and no city resources, gathered Sunday to begin hanging the decorations. But they quickly discovered the task was too tall, and they were concerned about liability. There are some new stars attached to lightpoles in the downtown that were previously hung without difficulty, but the others are too much of a job for the volunteers to handle. As a result, the few decorations that are hung make it look like the downtown is only sort of celebrating Christmas this season. It’s not a good look. If La Crosse wants to attract shoppers to the downtown this holiday season, City Hall should do what it has always done and provide the manpower to hang the lights and decorations. Otherwise, it looks like a big heap of bah-humbug.