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Eau Claire City Council President Jeremy Gragert Talks Transit and Parking

Gragert touches on downtown parking plans, encouraging bus ridership, and new Chippewa Valley Bike Map

 

By: Willow Pawlisch

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Jeremy Gragert, current Eau Claire City Council President, has been in office for just under two months. Between 2018 and 2024, he represented District 3 for two terms on City Council, but he’s been involved in Eau Claire’s local government for much longer than that.

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Before joining the council he helped to create the Chippewa Valley Bike Map (2021), the City of Eau Claire Sustainability Advisory Committee (2014), and collaborated with several city staff members to promote community gardens and bike and walking trails throughout the community. 

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Frustration with the city transit system is part of the reason he got involved. Since he doesn’t own a car, Gragert has gotten very familiar with public transit, walking, and biking paths around the Chippewa Valley. He hopes to support this effort even more over his 3-year term with the release of a 2026 Chippewa Valley Bike Map this summer. 

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“There is a churning of things and needs downtown from various perspectives,” Gragert said. “I tend to focus more on how we can make it easier to walk and bike and take transit downtown, as opposed to relying as much on parking, but I recognize the need to find parking as well.”

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Eau Claire City Council approved a new paid parking plan for downtown Eau Claire to take effect on June 1st. It was then delayed to August 1st because the kiosks used to implement the system are taking longer than anticipated to be installed. 

Gragert said the decision was made before he was council president, but he understands the motivation to implement paid parking. 

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“The point of putting a price on it is to make that more available,” Gragert said. “Because people decide ‘I’m only going to use this parking spot as long as I need to’ as opposed to ‘I’ll leave my car here all day’.”

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Gragert also talked about City Council’s focus on long-term planning. Eau Claire’s City government is modelled on an elected council that hires a city manager, who then hires the rest of city staff. Gragert said his role on the council beyond chairing meetings is mostly about facilitation between the council and city manager. 

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“I have a full time job, so I think the position is somewhat of what you make of it and how much time you have as well,” Gragert said. “Some of it is sharing responsibility with the rest of the city council, so there’s a certain amount of cooperation from the council to make sure that we’re representing the public in the best possible way.” 

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Gragert explained over the next five to ten years the council will be looking at a variety of issues from replacing or creating fire stations, the space between the library and city hall, waste water treatment, public transit, and parking ramp replacement. 

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Gragert attended university at UW-Eau Claire, and on the cross country team and as a cyclist he spent a lot of time finding the non-automobile ways of getting around. He said that the experience led him away from Eau Claire’s hidden gem: the bus system.

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“We need to promote and provide good public information about our bus system,” Gragert said. “Especially if we’re going to have paid parking coming downtown. Especially if we have renewable energy and carbon neutrality goals.”

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Gragert has focused on public transit accessibility goals with reduced bus-fare programs implemented over the years, and a recently accomplished free bus ridership for K-12 students, a program Gragert pushed for his first time on the council. It is a path he wants to continue. 

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“I’m hopeful we can improve the maps, apps, and bus routes to make it easier for people to use the buses,” he said.

Another issue Gragert spoke about was the upcoming Comprehensive Plan. Starting in Summer 2026, the city will begin public engagement opportunities to talk about the long-term goals of growth in Eau Claire to include in the newest Comprehensive Plan. 

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Gragert hopes to keep expanding the conversation to talk about not just paid parking, but also non-automobile transportation opportunities. 

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[caption: 1939 aerial view of Eau Claire, centered on the downtown. (Photo via Chippewa Valley Museum) ]

Gragert said, “If you look at an aerial photograph of the City of Eau Claire in the 1930’s downtown area, there was maybe one parking lot where the farmers would go and sell produce. That was the only parking lot in the 1930’s because not many people had cars and public transit was decent and a lot of people lived in high density neighborhoods close to downtown and could walk. 

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A lot of that was torn down over this obsession with trying to accommodate the automobile, and some of the buildings were old too so they decided to just take one down, take that one down too, but eventually we ripped down half of our downtown buildings and even whole neighborhoods like around Mayo. They ripped down 15 square-blocks of housing. The county building has ripped down blocks of housing—even the senior center. And we’ve been talking about affordable housing. How much of it did we tear down for parking lots?” 

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To listen to the full conversation go to Eau Claire Hometown Media’s Spotify.

Willow Pawlisch can be reached at wppawlisch@gmail.com. 

The next City Council meeting can be found at Meetings | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.